Sweden: First Circular Roadmap for Solar Panels
Sweden may need to manage up to 150,000 tons of end-of-life solar panels a year by around 2060. Therefore, Swedish partners across the value chain have presented the country’s first circular roadmap for solar panels.
Solar power is becoming one of Sweden’s fastest-growing sources of electricity. However, the number of end-of-life solar panels is also expected to increase significantly. Scenario analyses from RISE Research Institutes of Sweden indicate that Sweden may need to manage between 40,000 and 150,000 tons of end-of-life solar panels per year by around 2060 – at the upper end, more than the total amount of electrical and electronic waste collected in Sweden in 2024. “The challenge is Europe-wide: according to the European Commission, the EU could face more than 20 million tons of cumulative end-of-life solar panels by 2050. At the same time, findings from the CircSolar project*) and research at KTH Royal Institute of Technology show that panels removed from service should not automatically be regarded as waste. Many are still functional and could potentially remain in use, while others need repair or recycling.”
Based on these findings, Axfoundation, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, El-Kretsen, Svea Solar, Stena Recycling and Remondis have developed a circular roadmap for solar panels in Sweden. As reported, it identifies three key priorities: extend the lifetime of functioning panels, develop specialized recycling that keeps materials in circulation, and strengthen extended producer responsibility, traceability and data on future panel flows.
Regarding extended producer responsibility, “all companies placing solar panels on the Swedish market need to contribute to their future collection and treatment on equal terms. Stronger traceability and better data on future panel flows are also needed to enable long-term planning.”
Sweden could build recycling capacity step-by-step using specialized recycling for solar panels, which is being developed in Europe. As Swedish volumes increase, the country could build its own capacity through investments in domestic infrastructure. Recycling companies such as Remondis and Stena Recycling are already preparing for these future material flows.
As underlined, the roadmap “also points to a need for coordinated action from government and public authorities to make it easier and more economically viable to reuse functioning panels, strengthen investment in high-value recycling, and ensure that extended producer responsibility works in practice”.
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*) CircSolar, launched in 2023, is a collaborative project involving KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Axfoundation, Svea Solar, El-Kretsen, Stena Recycling and REMONDIS. The project is co-funded by Vinnova, Sweden’s innovation agency.
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 3/2026, Page 22, Photo: Axfoundation)
