U.S. materials recovery company OnePlanet has unveiled PRISM, a fully mechanical recycling technology designed to recover high-purity materials from end-of-life solar photovoltaic modules without thermal or chemical separation.

The company said testing at its demonstration facility in Green Cove Springs showed the system can remove 99.5% of solar glass at 99% purity before size reduction. PRISM also produced a silicon stream with more than 95% purity and 1% silver, along with copper at 99% purity and aluminium at 99.9% purity.

📈 The technology is being developed as the volume of end-of-life solar equipment is expected to increase sharply. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimates that global solar PV waste will rise from 0.2 million tonnes in 2021 to 4 million tonnes in 2030, almost 50 million tonnes in 2040 and more than 200 million tonnes by 2050.

OnePlanet is preparing its first industrial-scale facility at River City in Florida, supported by a $14.5 million federal 48C tax credit. The plant is expected to process about 2 million solar modules annually from 2027, with planned capacity expansion to 6 million modules by 2030.

The company says the mechanical approach is intended to recover materials at qualities suitable for commodity markets while avoiding the energy and chemical requirements associated with alternative separation processes.

☀️ Solar modules contain valuable materials including silicon, silver, copper, aluminium and glass, making higher-value recovery increasingly important as solar deployment accelerates.