Solar Materials successfully completes seed round

The start-up develops methods for recycling photovoltaic modules. Now it has been able to convince a well-known investor.

The Berlin-based BMP Ventures AG is investing in the Braunschweig-based start-up Solar Materials with the IBG venture capital fund. Solartech is considering processes for recycling photovoltaic systems. The technology should not only be ecological, but also economical. With a patent application and the first financing, a first industrial recycling line with an annual capacity of about 4,500 tons is to be established in 2023.

The IBG funds, based in Magdeburg, are the venture capital funds of the state of Saxony-Anhalt. The investors see a long-term opportunity: in Germany alone, the amount of solar modules to be recycled is expected to grow to over 100,000 tons or 5 million modules per year by the end of the decade. This would give the start-up enough to do. "In the context of the investment, we are looking at a trusting cooperation that we were able to establish in advance and at an exciting growth and future mega market with a historical connection to the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt," explains David Stuck, Investment Manager at BMP Ventures.

Technically, the recycling is made possible by a combination of various process steps and the company's research: "With the technology we have developed, we are able to precisely attack the bonding plastic layer. Once this is dissolved, the cover glass can be removed and we can access the printed silver tracks on the solar cells as well as the cell itself," says technical managing director and co-founder Jan Bargel. "This not only recovers the silicon, which is energetically expensive to produce, but more importantly the valuable silver. The recycling itself thus becomes economically viable," adds Fridolin Franke, commercial managing director and also co-founder.