Itochu is entering the PV module recycling business through a capital and business alliance with France-based Rosi Solar. The Japanese trading house will acquire an undisclosed number of shares from Rosi Solar via a private placement.
“Itochu has entered into these alliances with the aim of promoting and expanding the solar panel recycling business,” it said in a statement.
Rosi Solar develops technologies to recycle silver, copper and silicon from solar panels without crushing them.
“The processes used are based on physical, thermal, and soft chemistry mechanisms,” said the Grenoble-based company. “They do not use aggressive chemical reaction and the operating cost is reduced.”
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Rosi Solar said it plans to start operating a commercial recycling plant in France from the beginning of 2023. It claims its technologies “allow to operate economically viable recycling sites for photovoltaic modules in Europe.”
Itochu, meanwhile, said it aims to develop and expand its solar panel recycling business in Japan and other countries.
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ROSI’s recycling technologies use thermal treatment for the delamination of PV modules, followed by a soft chemical treatment on the photovoltaic cells to separate the silver fingers from the silicon wafers. It is the first industrial process allowing to recover high purity silicon and the silver fraction from end-of-life photovoltaic modules. The glass fraction and the copper interconnects are also recovered with high purity.
This process allows to extract up to 4 times more value from recycled material compared to shredding the panels, which was the only treatment available at industrial scale.