29/08/2025
Europe is going green — solar panels and electric vehicles are everywhere. But there’s a growing problem: what happens when they reach the end of their life? By 2035, over a million tonnes of solar panel waste and hundreds of thousands of EV batteries will be discarded each year. So we’ll need to find sustainable solutions to manage all the waste.
Today, recycling and reuse options are limited, creating a gap SOLMATE aims to fill. SOLMATE shifts away from linear to a circular and integrated business model for 2nd life PV panels and EV batteries that will address the emerging waste management problem and will support access to CRMs required by the green transition.
The project introduces a circular approach through 2 core actions:
- Extending the lifetime of ‘retired’ PV panels and EV batteries
- Resource recovery when repurposing is no longer possible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp3ORrXHhQQ
