Itochu forms a capital tie-up with a French company for decomposition processing of solar panels
Recovery of silver, copper, and silicon through chemical processing
ROSI's solar panel decomposition technology
(Source: ITOCHU Corporation)
On November 29, ITOCHU Corporation announced that it had signed a capital and business alliance agreement undertaking a third-party allotment of shares to be implemented by France's ROSI. ROSI develops and possesses dismantling technology that enables the recycling (reuse of materials) of solar panels. The two companies will jointly develop and expand the dismantling and processing business for solar panels in Japan and overseas.
ROSI was founded in 2017. Unlike the conventional method of dismantling solar panels by physically shredding them, we have developed a technology that uses chemical processing to recover silver, copper, and silicon, which have particularly high market prices among the materials contained in solar panels, in high purity. ·Possess.
In 2021, we will be entrusted with a public project for dismantling solar panels in France, and we plan to start operating a commercial plant in early 2023. In Japan, ROSI, Itochu Corporation, and other companies will establish a joint venture (JV) with the aim of starting operation of a Japanese factory in the mid-2020s.
In Europe, the feed-in tariff (FIT) introduced in the mid-2000s has led to a rapid increase in the amount of solar power installed. On the other hand, solar panels generally have a lifespan of about 20 years, and the mass disposal of solar panels is expected to accelerate from the mid-2020s.
Also, in Japan, FIT will be introduced in 2012, and mass disposal is expected to occur from around 2030. In the next 10 to 15 years, the amount of waste is expected to increase more than 10 times from the current level, reaching approximately 170,000 to 280,000 tons in 2036, accounting for 1.7 to 2.7% of all industrial waste for final disposal. .
