We Recycle Solar to Launch First End-to-End Critical Materials Plant in Texas

We Recycle Solar (WRS) is establishing a 10-acre critical-materials recovery facility outside Dallas, Texas, to process retired solar panels. Scheduled to open in Q3 2027, the plant represents the first end-to-end recovery operation of its kind in the United States.

The facility is designed for high-volume throughput, with the capacity to process one solar panel per minute. According to company data, the plant will recover up to 96% of the materials from each unit, specifically targeting high-value silver, copper, and silicon, alongside aluminum and glass. Crucially, the process is designed to be fully domestic, recovering these materials at a commercial scale without the need for downstream smelting at overseas facilities.

The Shift in Solar Waste

Conventional solar recycling has historically focused on the "low-hanging fruit" of a panel—the aluminum frames and glass. While these are easily reclaimed, high-value elements like silver and silicon often require complex processing. Until now, this typically meant sending partially processed materials to overseas facilities, primarily in Asia, for final smelting.

While the majority of U.S. solar installations have not yet reached their typical 25-to-35-year retirement age, the industry faces an accelerating waste stream. This trend is driven by a combination of early system replacements and panels damaged by extreme weather events, creating an urgent need for scalable domestic infrastructure.

Securing the Domestic Supply Chain

Establishing a domestic end-to-end recovery process is a strategic move to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign processing for materials essential to the energy grid and electronics manufacturing. By keeping the recovery process on U.S. soil, the industry can potentially lower the overall cost of recycling, making it a more competitive alternative to landfilling.

"Solar panels contain the exact critical materials the US supply chain desperately needs, but until now, no American company has been able to recover their full resources at such scale or efficiency," said Adam Saghei, founder and CEO of We Recycle Solar.

Expansion Plans

This Texas facility is the cornerstone of a larger growth strategy. WRS has already diverted more than 1 million panels from landfills through its existing operations. Looking forward, the company plans to invest an estimated $100 million to develop four additional recovery locations across the United States over the next four years. The success of the Dallas plant will serve as the blueprint for this national expansion as the volume of retired solar hardware continues to climb.