A solved problem, applied to a new industry.
The electronics-recycling industry built the standard that ended offshore dumping. The solar industry hasn’t yet. We’re bringing that discipline — from day one.
It’s technology displacement, not end-of-life.
Panels installed at 15–17% efficiency in 2017 still work. But a utility that repowers an existing site with 22–24% panels — reusing the racking, inverters, land lease, and grid connection — captures 30–40% more generation from identical infrastructure.
The math no longer favors keeping the older panels. The result: a permanent, recurring supply of healthy six-year-old panels with fifteen-plus years of productive life left — the same dynamic that built the ITAD industry two decades ago.
“This is not an end-of-life story. It’s a technology-displacement story. The ITAD industry has been living this dynamic for two decades. The solar industry is entering it now — without the infrastructure ITAD eventually built to handle it responsibly.”
SLS White Paper · April 2026
Three streams. One closed loop.
Repurposable panels graded and routed to second-life markets. Grade-based pricing builds a deliberate downstream second-user community.
Inverters, racking, batteries, and balance-of-system equipment refurbished or harvested. Nothing leaves the site without a documented destination.
Non-repurposable panels and components routed to certified domestic recyclers. Chain of custody tracked to final destination. No offshore. No landfill.
Certified domestic downstream partners.
We build relationships with R2-certified recyclers and verified domestic buyers so that every material stream from a decommissioned site has a documented, audited final destination.
Our downstream network is aligned with the IRA and DOE Critical Materials Strategy objectives: keeping valuable materials in U.S. industry rather than exporting them for uncertain processing overseas.
Verified disposition, from day one.
We apply chain-of-custody, downstream verification, and prohibited-practices controls to every material flow from a decommissioned site.
The SLS founding team built and audited that methodology in a prior ITAD context. We bring it to solar from the first transaction. The Basel Action Network’s attention to solar waste flows is building. We intend to be ahead of that curve.
The 2027 Florida repower event.
A major Florida utility operating ~30 million installed panels has a repower-driven decommissioning event slated for late 2027: 350,000 panels averaging six years old.
One event. One utility. The story is what happens when this dynamic plays out across every utility in the Sun Belt — with or without the infrastructure to handle it responsibly.