Tartu company plans to recycle solar panels
Thursday 8th October 2026 on 12:15 in
Estonia
Waste management company Epler & Lorenz plans to establish a solar panel recycling unit in Tartu, with nearly half a million euros in support from the European Union Cohesion Fund, ERR reports. The facility is intended to recover glass, aluminium, copper and silicon-based fine fractions from up to 1,600 tonnes of panels a year.
Solar panel waste volumes in Estonia remain small, but the question of how to recover valuable metals as well as glass is already drawing attention. Data from Estonia’s Register of Products of Concern show that 60,000 tonnes of solar panels were placed on the market between 2018 and 2025.
Piret Otsason, who leads the Ministry of Climate’s work on producer responsibility and hazardous waste, said waste managers expect a maximum of 1,000 tonnes of panels to become waste annually in 2027. The amount was about 100 tonnes last year.
Solar panels typically last 25 to 30 years, so larger waste volumes are expected only years from now. However, some panels are replaced earlier. Kaur Kuurme, head of Eesti Elektroonikaromu, said damage such as hail can make panels unusable, while newer models can produce more electricity from the same area.
A typical silicon-based panel is about 80 percent glass. The rest consists of aluminium, polymers, silicon, copper and silver. Harri Moora, a senior researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute, said breaking and recycling the glass is relatively straightforward, but recovering valuable metals remains difficult. Technologies that can do so are costly, he said, and Estonia does not yet have a simpler option.
Epler & Lorenz board member Janis Lorenz said the planned unit would separate and recycle up to 1,600 tonnes of materials annually.
The International Renewable Energy Agency estimates that global solar panel waste could reach 80 million tonnes by 2050. Although most panels come from China, European Union directives require waste generated in the EU to be handled locally.
Moora said this raises questions about producer responsibility. Companies pay fees now, but the waste will emerge decades later, and the firms that paid may no longer exist. It is unclear who will cover recycling costs in 30 years, he said.