October 24, 2025Environment & CSR
Initiates Collaboration with NPC incorporated to Expand Horizontal Recycling of Solar panel cover glass
AGC (AGC Inc., Headquarters: Tokyo; President: Yoshinori Hirai), a world-leading manufacturer of glass, chemicals and other high-tech materials, has initiated a collaboration with NPC incorporated (Head Office: Tokyo; “NPC”) to promote the recycling of solar panel cover glass. Aiming to recycle several thousand tons of solar panels annually by 2030, AGC is partnering with various companies to establish a collection system for cover glass. Through this collaboration, AGC has developed a new scheme to horizontally recycle cover glass—separated using NPC’s solar panel recycling equipment—into architectural flat glass.
The useful life of solar panels is expected to be 20 to 30 years, and it is estimated to face tens of thousands of tons of solar panel waste annually in Japan in the latter half of the 2030s. Horizontal recycling of solar panel cover glass is a key initiative toward realizing a sustainable circular society. However, separating the cover glass and improving its quality to meet recycling standards has had both technical and economic challenges.
AGC has confirmed that the combination of NPC’s glass separation equipment*1 and EVA scraper*2 can effectively remove residual adhesive materials to meet AGC’s stringent quality standards. This enables recyclers to adopt NPC’s equipment and sell high-quality recycled glass to AGC. In establishing this recycling scheme, AGC has provided advice on equipment specifications and supported the development of a logistics network to facilitate efficient cullet collection. In September 2025, AGC successfully used 20 tons of cullet processed by this method as part of the raw materials to manufacture figured glass at its Yokohama Technical Center. This marks the introduction of a new horizontal recycling method for solar panel cover glass, in addition to existing pyrolysis and high-pressure water jet technologies.
AGC will continue to strengthen its collaboration with NPC and promote the recycling of solar panel cover glass both in Japan and overseas.
This initiative is part of a commissioned project (JPNP25011) by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).
In its medium-term management plan, AGC plus-2026, the AGC Group has defined "three social values" to be created through its products and technologies. In the "Blue planet" value, AGC views effective resource utilization as a key opportunity and contributes to a sustainable global environment through the expansion of horizontal glass recycling.
〈Notes〉
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*1 |
Hot Knife Separation Method® (Patent No. 6271468): Equipment that uses a heated special blade to separate the glass from the cell sheet containing metal without breaking the glass. |
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*2 |
Brush Scraping Method™ (Patent No. 7712718): Equipment that removes residual EVA from separated glass using a rotating special brush. |
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About the AGC Group
AGC Inc.(Headquarters: Tokyo, President & CEO: Yoshinori Hirai) is the parent company of the AGC Group, a world-leading glass solution provider and supplier of flat, automotive and display glass, chemicals, ceramics and other high-tech materials and components. Based on more than a century of technical innovation, the AGC Group has developed a wide range of cutting-edge products. The AGC Group employs some 56,000 people worldwide and generates annual sales of approximately 1.7 trillion Japanese yen through business in about 30 countries. For more information, please visit www.agc.com/en
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