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AGC Inc., a Tokyo-based glass, chemicals, and high-tech materials manufacturer, announced on March 25, 2024, that it had succeeded for the first time in Japan in a demonstration test to recycle solar panel cover glass into float glass.
AGC conducted the demonstration test on March 18 at the AGC Kashima Plant’s float glass production furnace using approximately five tons of cover glass, refined and supplied by Tokuyama Corporation, a Tokyo-based chemical company, with its low-temperature thermal decomposition technology.
AGC expects that following the success of this demonstration test, float glass, which has a high production volume, could serve as a market for the horizontal recycling of cover glass.
Glass accounts for about 60% of the total weight of a typical crystalline solar panel. The Study Group on the Disposal and Recycling of Renewable Energy Generation Facilities, led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Ministry of the Environment (MOE), has also stressed the need to create a market for recycled solar panel materials, including glass.
