The leading specialist company for the recycling and refurbishment of solar modules Rinovasol is building up its business in Japan together with the company WQ Inc.

The leading specialist company for the recycling and refurbishment of solar modules Rinovasol from Weiden (Bavaria) has expanded its international network. Through the joint venture with the company WQ Inc, Rinovasol, the largest solution provider in Europe for the recycling and repair of solar modules, is now expanding to Japan.

WQ Inc was founded in 2013 as a spin-off of a German solar module manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo with the core business of selling solar components and solutions, project development and as an independent power producer (IPP). It is run by the German manager Steffen Studeny. He says: “We are committed to a 100 percent CO2-free power supply in the future. In recent years we have grown into one of the largest distributors for solar components and solutions in Japan. Our focus is on high-quality products and solutions to guarantee our customers the lowest electricity production costs and the highest return.”

He is therefore pleased about the joint venture with Rinovasol. So far, Rinovasol has already refurbished or recycled almost a million modules. The renovation of solar modules is a cost-effective and ecologically sensible alternative to the junkyard and helps to win the fight against climate change by promoting alternative energy generation. “Thanks to our large network, we can access many customers to continuously bring modules into the renovation and recycling cycle. The timing couldn't be better: The first modules are now being replaced in Japan”, says Steffen Studeny.

“We are pleased to have gained a proven Japan expert in Steffen Studeny. Together with his WQ team, he will be responsible for establishing and maintaining direct contacts with manufacturers and customers in Japan and for representing the services of the Rinovasol Group”, says Josef Gmeiner, Managing Director of Rinovasol.

Japan is an important market for photovoltaics and solar energy. The serious nuclear accident in Fukushima in 2011 led to an increased use of renewable energies. The highest shares in renewable energies in Japan had hydropower (7.4 percent) and photovoltaics with 7.4 percent in 2019. The Japanese solar program resulted in an installed PV capacity of around 60,000 megawatts in 2019. “Japan is therefore an essential component in our strategy. Millions of solar modules are required to achieve the expansion goals. To ensure that the demand for high-quality solar modules can be met over the long term and to avoid gigantic amounts of waste, new solutions are necessary”, emphasizes Josef Gmeiner.

Thanks to the work of Rinovasol, new modules are made available for further use and the life cycles are significantly extended. With the standardized and established conditioning for solar modules, which are intended for the refinement of such modules by coating with a polymer after a fault analysis, Rinovasol has a lead in the market. The polymer used was the result of a further development carried out by Rinovasol, which is based on material from the military and aerospace sectors and for which Rinovasol has exclusive worldwide usage rights.