The Dawn of Solar Panel Recycling Startups in Southeast Asia
Solar in Southeast Asia is Recent
While solar panels showed up on a few rooftops in Southeast Asia in the 1970s and 1980s, numbers only started to jump in the 2000s.
One of the first big installations was in Malaysia, where Verdant Solar said the largest electricity utility company launched the country’s first grid-connected solar panel system in 2000. Singapore’s solar capacity rose from just 0.4 megawatt-peak in 2008 to 427 megawatts in 2020, according to JTC.
Since solar panels can last about 25 years, the small numbers available so far have meant that recycling has not been a priority. The number of worn-out panels is rising quickly.
Recycling and Reusing are Essential
Panels dumped in landfills contain toxic pollutants such as cadmium, silver, tin and lead that contaminate both soil and drinking water, so recovery is essential.
The biggest challenge is that recycling has not been economical, National University of Singapore senior research fellow Jai Prakash Singh told Eco-Business. It is still often cheaper to put solar panels in landfill than to recycle them.
The scale of the problem is huge. In Singapore, Redux estimates the number of solar panels to be decommissioned per year will grow from about 134,305 in 2025 to 157,087 by 2030. In Thailand, the Development Research Institute said cumulative discarded panels could total up to 57,200 tons by 2030 and 728,000 tons by 2050. So far, however, the only guidelines for end-of-life solar management Thailand are limited to landfill, incineration or exporting waste.
Recently, however, governments have begun to realise the dangers of an increasing amount of solar panel waste and are starting to push recycling.
Singapore, for example, approved the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework in 2019 and the E-waste Recyclers regulations in 2021. Bird & Bird calls it a key pillar of Singapore’s battery recycling regime.
Vietnam is also working on an extended producer responsibility (EPR) model for solar panel waste within the framework of its Environmental Protection Law.
To help move regulatory requirements forward in all markets in Southeast Asia, ASEAN and GIZ as well as other players convened representatives from ASEAN, Southeast Asian government agencies, companies, researchers and academics in 2025 for the region’s first training on management of renewable energy components. Participants looked at waste streams, solutions such as extended producer responsibility, and business models to improve recycling. While one programme won’t result in an immediate change, the initiative is emblematic of opportunities for improvement across ASEAN.
Startups Provide Solutions
In several key countries in the region, startups are already starting to take advantage of the opportunities for handling used solar panels.
Some startups are creating innovative solutions that turn recovery of valuable components into a viable business model. Neusla in Singapore, for instance, said its process achieves excellent recovery rates for the components in solar panels and high material purity. It uses a technology to upcycle end‑of‑life solar panels into nano‑silicon, creating a material for lithium‑ion batteries and positioning itself at the intersection of solar and storage. Zenviro Solar Panel Recycling in Malaysia is investing in equipment that extracts the aluminum frame, junction box and glass, and it crushes the remaining components into powder. “The powder is a mix of precious metals like copper, silicon and silver, and this can be recovered,” general manager Austin Kuok told The Edge. While Zenviro currently sells the ground materials to refineries outside of Malaysia, it is exploring opportunities to extract the precious metals in the country.
Other startups are focusing more on the recycling process itself. In Singapore, for instance, KGS, a subsidiary of KGS Investments, said it operates Singapore's first automated solar panel recycling facility. It offers a fully managed solution for end-of-life solar panels and ensures safe handling as well as environmental responsibility.
An initiative by Redux launched a solar panel recycling facility in 2025 that aims to recover, recycle, and reuse as much as 96 percent of each solar panel. The facility can process about 36,000 solar panels a year. Redux uses technology from a startup, EtaVolt, to recycle the solar panels.
Other startups are in the early stages of exploring opportunities. Head of operational sustainability Nor Azah Masrom at Cypark Resources in Malaysia told The Edge that the company is exploring options for solar panel recycling. It is waiting for the government’s guidelines on solar panel end-of-life management, which it expects to be finalised by the end of the year. In Vietnam, the Mekong Solar PV Recycling Project says it is addressing solar waste sustainably across the Mekong region.
In other markets, though, startups are lagging and will need to move fast if they want to carve out a share of the market before other companies move in. An example of the issue is in Thailand, where Chinese companies have already moved in. The Suny Group said in 2025 that it provided a solar panel recycling production line for a customer in Thailand that adopts advanced technology and is capable of efficiently recycling valuable materials from solar panels. Henan Honest Heavy Machinery said its solar panel recycling plant extracts reusable materials through the processes of disassembly, crushing and separation.
A promising initiative that could help Indonesia is Zero-Carbon and Circular Solar PV Recycling (Si-Zero). Launched by Swinburne Australia Professor Rhamdhani, the four-country initiative includes IIT Hyderabad in India, Gadjah Mada University and BRIN in Indonesia, and the Sadoway Labs Foundation in the United States. “This research program is the first of its kind in the world. It brings together international expertise to develop zero-carbon processes for recovering high-purity silicon and other valuable materials from end-of-life solar panels,” says Bintang Nuraeni, a Swinburne researcher involved in the program. Daur Material Indonesia (Remind) announced its participation as the Indonesian industry partner in the project in 2025.
While progress in recycling solar panels has been slow so far, startups are beginning to address the gap. Investors who move quickly and carefully may find attractive opportunities in recyclers that can scale up and expand across multiple markets in Southeast Asia.
