Sureya
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Introduction
Sureya aims to create a circular economy for solar energy by developing an advanced solar panel recycling ecosystem in India. The company will provide end-to-end recycling solutions to solar developers and OEMs, ensuring compliance with Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations while recovering high-value materials from decommissioned solar panels. Through innovation in chemical processing and partnerships with waste collectors, Sureya seeks to establish a profitable and sustainable recycling model.
Problem
India's solar capacity is expanding rapidly, leading to an inevitable surge in solar panel waste. By 2030, solar waste in India is projected to reach 594,000 tons, escalating to 5 million tons by 2040 and 19 million tons by 2050. Without intervention, much of this waste will end up in landfills, leading to environmental hazards and lost economic opportunities.
Existing e-waste recyclers in India lack specialized processes for efficiently recovering valuable materials from solar panels. Conventional methods are expensive, energy-intensive and inefficient, yielding low margins, which discourages large-scale investment.
Developers currently allocate about 1% of CAPEX for decommissioning but struggle to find compliant recyclers. Increasing EPR regulations are pushing developers to seek sustainable disposal solutions, but there are no specialized solar recyclers in India.
Opportunity
Sureya offers a cost-effective, high-recovery solar panel recycling service that extracts valuable materials while ensuring environmental compliance. We aim to innovate a a high-efficiency recovery method that achieves >90% material recovery rate. compared to conventional methods. To decrease transport costs, we plan to tap into the existing, robust network of informal scrap collectors, formalizing their process and providing higher pay, more stable careers and a life of dignity. By tackling India's growing solar waste problem with an innovative, sustainable, and scalable solution, Sureya is positioned to become a leader in solar panel recycling and circular economy solutions.