ENGIE North America is taking a big step toward making solar power more sustainable by baking recycling into the foundation of four upcoming clean energy projects.

The company is partnering with tech-based solar panel recycler SOLARCYCLE to roll out a new kind of agreement that ensures about 1 million solar panels will get recycled once they reach end of life. The panels come from 375 megawatts (MW) worth of solar projects across the Midwest, and ENGIE says this move will help keep 48 million pounds of material out of landfills and cut around 33,000 tons of carbon emissions.

What makes this different is that recycling isn’t being tacked on at the end – it’s being planned from day one. This “precycling” approach builds recycling directly into power purchase agreements, so developers and energy buyers can make circularity part of their sustainability goals from the start.

It also helps that SOLARCYCLE can track every panel to make sure it actually gets recycled, with recovered materials fed back into the domestic supply chain to form the next generation of clean energy products.

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ENGIE says the partnership with SOLARCYCLE shows that a circular solar economy is possible, with no new regulations or upfront payments required. And it sends a strong message: clean energy shouldn’t just be renewable, it should be recyclable too.

These four pilot projects are part of ENGIE’s growing North American footprint, which already includes more than 12 gigawatts (GW) of wind, solar, and battery storage.

Read more: Heliene will make solar panels using SOLARCYCLE’s recycled glass and it’s a big deal

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