Big plans for recycling, glass making plant looking to get going by 2026

Later this year, a new factory is going to begin construction in an expansion of Cedartown’s industrial park. More than 200 acres of land will become home to a solar panel recycling company that only a few years old is expanding rapidly and expects to bring hundreds of jobs to the area.

The decision to come to Georgia – and Polk County specifically – was easy for SOLARCYCLE executives who are focused on being an American-made, recycling-focused company that is already taking old solar panels and returning the materials within back into the production process.

Robert Vinje, the Chief Operating Officer for SOLARCYCLE, is among those who look at the forthcoming Cedartown plant was the perfect match for their expanding operations: a site that can be configured to their needs, a deal that made perfect economic sense, and within close proximity to a solar cell producer who will be eager to have their materials.

Vinje said the process to bring the plant to Georgia began with state and local economic development officials, who put together a deal that’ll provide a $300+ million investment into the plant by SOLARCYCLE. He said the “economics just worked out perfect.”

The deal wasn’t just about the numbers, Vinje added.

“I feel like I was truly talking to my neighbors and friends with the state officials that talked to us,” Vinje said.

The land purchase from the Cedartown Development Authority for the York property announced last month where the plant will sit is only a small portion of that cost – just over $5 million. That’s a small investment considering the company will be close to a customer they just signed an agreement with – QCell, who just finished a $2.5 billion expansion at their Dalton facility.

QCell and SOLARCYCLE’s deal was announced just days before the Cedartown Development Authority voted to approve moving forward with the real estate deal with SOLARCYCLE in February.

QCell will be sending decommissioned panels from around the country to SOLARCYCLE, who then through their patented technology is able to break solar panels down and out of it create materials to be reused in the manufacturing process.

“Georgia is very rapidly growing in solar and renewables, and yes the QCell aspect is tied to that, as well as their proximity,” Vinje said.

The company that began in Odessa, Texas just two years ago has recently expanded into a new headquarters in Mesa, Arizona. Vinje said the company that utilizes their own equipment to break down panels will be expanding what they can offer to customers with a glass making plant to go alongside the recycling facility in Cedartown.

“We like to think ourselves as a technology company, and we are a materials company. We happen to do recycling,” Vinje said. “How those two mix together is almost a natural synergy between recycling and bringing that material into the circular economy into the next steps.”

That circular economy means that previously made solar panels can be reclaimed – a process that previously was too difficult to undertake before SOLARCYCLE figured out the big problem: delaminating the glass and materials that turn sunshine into electricity, including precious metals and aluminum desperately needed in the manufacturing process that can now be provided at a lower cost than new materials.

“We take the aluminum, we take the glass, and we take the precious metals out of the panels, and (our goals is) to bring that back into the solar industry,” he said.

The facilities in Texas and the future facility here in Polk County are strategically located to decrease costs for SOLARCYCLE and customers – seeking to lower logistics costs of transportation and the overall carbon footprint of the company.

All of these plans and processes are still in the not-too-distant future for Cedartown. Vinje said the company plans to break ground sometime during the third quarter of 2024, and complete construction of the 1 million+ square foot facility by midyear 2026.

The facility itself is one step in the process, but Cedartown will have to also get a workforce ready to handle the recycling and glass manufacturing happening under one roof.

“We’ll need a wide variety, a diverse workforce,” Vinje said. “It will range from the operators and technicians, the line maintenance and the engineering management. It is everything you would expect in a manufacturing environment.”

They’ll be working with local and state officials to get workers ready for the facility opening and getting up and running. Vinje said the company is already begun discussions with Georgia Tech on training, but the workforce won’t just be about machine operators. Engineering and management support will also be needed for the facility too.

For now, SOLARCYCLE is getting their i’s dotted, and t’s crossed on everything they have to do to get started on construction. The York Property already had some of the items completed that was needed thanks to a Georgia Power grant to make some improvements and become a GRAD (Georgia Ready for Advanced Development) site, which makes the process of building smoother.

Check back for additional updates on the SOLARCYCLE facility as they become available.