Solarcycle has begun recycling operations at its long-planned solar panel recycling facility in Cedartown, Georgia, marking a new operational phase for a project that was publicly discussed last year amid uncertainty surrounding federal clean energy tax incentives.
The company announced Jan. 29 that the 255,000 square foot facility is now processing solar panels using its next generation proprietary recycling technology. Solarcycle said the system more than doubles the throughput of its earlier recycling lines and enables 100% landfill diversion while recovering 96% of the value from the silver, copper, aluminum, glass and other materials in end-of-life panels.
According to the company, the Cedartown facility is processing thousands of solar panels per week and is expected to scale toward 1 million panels annually by the end of 2026. At full capacity, the site is designed to process up to 5 gigawatts of solar panels each year.
“Our recycling facility in Cedartown represents a step change in how we are delivering end of life infrastructure,” said Suvi Sharma, CEO and co-founder of Solarcycle, in a statement announcing the launch. “The next phase of our growth is all about bringing solar recycling to industrial scale and delivering winning economics for our customers so the industry can keep high volumes of critical materials in domestic supply chains as solar deployment continues to accelerate.”
The operations launch follows uncertainty in mid-2025, when national media coverage described the Cedartown project as being on hold while Congress debated the future of federal clean energy tax credits.
A June 2025 report by the New York Times said the development was on hold while lawmakers considered legislation that would have eliminated tax incentives for wind and solar energy projects. At the time, the newspaper reported that Solarcycle had spent about $50 million of a planned $500 million investment and had secured land permits and equipment for the site.
That reporting was subsequently cited by E-Scrap News in June 2025.
In recent communications with E-Scrap News, Solarcycle said the earlier coverage reflected ambiguity in how the Cedartown development was discussed publicly at the time. The company said the site consists of two distinct but co-located projects, including a recycling facility housed in an existing industrial building and a separate greenfield site planned for a future solar glass manufacturing plant.
“Despite last year’s unfavorable market headwinds, we’ve seen continued demand for end-of-life solar solutions and have been making significant progress at our solar recycling facility in Cedartown,” Sharma told E-Scrap News.
According to the company, work at the recycling facility continued throughout that period, including equipment installation and preparation for commercial operations, while broader uncertainty was more closely tied to the timing of the glass manufacturing project. Solarcycle said it wanted to ensure the operational status of the recycling facility was clearly understood as panel processing begins at scale.
“Right next door at our greenfield site for the solar glass factory, we are now seeing more market certainty than last year. We’ve secured customer commitments covering more than 80% of the glass factory’s planned 5 GW capacity, indicating strong demand for American-made solar materials. We’re on track to begin construction this year and to start delivering first shipments of solar glass in 2028,” Sharma said.
The planned solar glass manufacturing plant is intended to reuse recovered materials from end-of-life panels and create an integrated recycling and manufacturing campus. Solarcycle said it has secured customer commitments covering more than 80% of the glass factory’s planned capacity.
Solarcycle also pointed to continued growth in US solar deployment as a driver of future demand for end of life solutions. The Energy Information Administration has said utility scale solar continues to be the fastest growing source of electricity generation in the country, with nearly 70 gigawatts of new solar generating capacity scheduled to come online in 2026 and 2027. That would represent a 49% increase in operating capacity compared with the end of 2025.
In addition to the Georgia facility, Solarcycle operates solar panel recycling capacity in Texas, according to prior public reporting. The company positions the Cedartown site as a central component of its strategy to strengthen domestic supply chains for solar materials as deployment continues to expand.
