Italy’s Ecoprogetti has developed an automated photovoltaic recycling line that separates and recovers up to 100% of the aluminum, copper, glass, plastic and silicon in solar panels. It can process up to 60 panels per hour while using 40% less energy than other solutions on the market.
Italian solar production equipment provider Ecoprogetti has developed an automatic system for solar panel recycling.
An Ecoprogetti spokesperson told pv magazine that the company has developed “truly industrial recycling plants, designed to work continuously, reliably and with high productivity.”
Ecoprogetti has been shipping more than one of the systems per month since 2024, the spokesperson added, with active installations in Italy, Spain, Greece and other Southern European countries.
The plant is designed to recycle double-glass and glass-backsheet solar panels. The line is both flexible and scalable, thanks to an adjustment system that allows the processing of differen-sized panels and a barcode traceability system.
It features seven recycling machines in total. The first removes junction boxes from photovoltaic panels, while the second removes PV module frames and the third removes the bulk of the front glass from the PV laminate.
Ecoprogetti
The next three machines take care of the separation of metals, then the division and collection of materials. According to data on Ecoprogetti’s website, the recycling line has a conversion rate of 100% of aluminum, 99% of both copper and glass, 98.5% of plastic and 95% of silicon from the panels.
The final machine in the line removes fine particles generated during the recycling process and captures residual dust through high-efficiency filters.
Capable of processing up to 60 solar panels per hour, Ecoprogetti says its recycling line also consumes 40% less energy than other solutions on the market “ensuring an optimal balance between energy efficiency and production capacity.”
The plant requires 500 sqm of installation space, 160 kW of power and two operators, the company's website adds, and comes with a payback time of between one and two years.
According to figures from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA(, there will be up to 80 million tons of end-of-life solar panels globally by 2050. In Italy, the volume of PV waste is expected to reach 2.2 million tons by the same year.
