OnePlanet Closes $7 Million Seed Round; Secures $14.5 Million Federal Clean Energy Tax Credit for Flagship U.S. Solar Panel Recycling Facility in Florida

The facility will be capable of processing 6 million end-of-life solar PV modules by 2030, producing high-grade critical materials such as silicon, aluminum, copper, and silver.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., April 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ --OnePlanet Solar Recycling, LLC ("OnePlanet"), an advanced materials recovery processor specializing in end-of-life solar panels, today announced the successful close of a $7 million seed financing round to advance development of its $90M industrial-scale 'River City' Project, a first-of-its-kind solar panel recycling facility located in Green Cove Springs, Florida.

This initial phase of capital will support final engineering, permitting, and pre-construction activities for the facility, which is designed to process over 2 million end-of-life photovoltaic (PV) modules annually upon commissioning in 2027, with planned expansions for additional phases totaling 6 million modules by 2030. The facility is expected to be one of the largest dedicated solar recycling operations in North America and represents a strategic response to the accelerating wave of solar decommissioning anticipated over the coming decades.

The financing round was led by Khasma Capital, an investment fund focused on the circular economy and emerging energy transition assets. Khasma's investment reflects growing institutional recognition that solar recycling is not a strictly downstream issue, but a critical upstream opportunity essential to sustaining U.S. clean energy buildout at scale.

"OnePlanet has assembled a team with both deep technical expertise and a disciplined approach to infrastructure project execution," said Ashlynn Horras, Partner at Khasma Capital. "This investment reflects our belief that solar module recycling is not only necessary - it is investable at scale, with durable tailwinds driven by regulation, economics, and resource security."

In parallel with the equity raise, OnePlanet's River City project was awarded a $14.5 million Investment Tax Credit under the Department of Energy's competitive Section 48C(e) Advanced Energy Project Program, established by the Inflation Reduction Act. The tax credit specifically supports domestic advanced manufacturing facilities that recover and reintroduce critical materials—such as silicon, aluminum, and copper—back into U.S. supply chains.

"The River City Project is purpose-built infrastructure for a new era of clean energy maturity," said André Pujadas, Chief Executive Officer of OnePlanet. "Solar as an industry is now at an inflection point in its lifecycle, where we can't simply install megawatts—we must also build the industrial capacity to recover and reintegrate the very materials that enable it. This facility will be a cornerstone of that effort."

Before founding OnePlanet, CEO André Pujadas held senior roles at the largest steel producers in the world including Nucor Corporation and Severstal and was directly involved in the industrial and technological shift that not only revolutionized global crude steel production, but transformed scrap metal from a low-value end-of-life product into a highly sought ferrous commodity. At the heart of the massive sustainable steel market was the deployment of Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) technology. During his tenure at Nucor, Pujadas was directly involved in advancing and implementing EAF-based operations. That not only revolutionized domestic steelmaking, but also redefined how the U.S. approached industrial recycling at scale. Today, Pujadas sees the solar industry at a similar inflection point.

"With millions of panels slated for decommissioning, the opportunity to recover high-purity silicon—and reintroduce it as a captive, domestic feedstock—parallels the EAF-era transformation we pioneered at Nucor," said Pujadas. "OnePlanet is building the infrastructure to harness this untapped materials stream as a foundational input not only for clean energy manufacturing, but also for the U.S. semiconductor industry—supporting domestic chip production and fortifying critical supply chains for decades to come."

The River City project is being developed as a scalable, platform-level operating asset for a national network of facilities, supporting the buildout of a domestic closed-loop solar economy. The plant's proprietary state-of-the-art fully automated separation and recovery technologies are optimized for throughput, and recovery of high purity streams strategically positioning OnePlanet as a foundational player in the future of energy-critical minerals recovery in the U.S.

The OnePlanet founding team brings deep institutional expertise spanning global finance, heavy industry, and clean energy infrastructure, with alumni from industry leaders such as Nucor, Goldman Sachs, Commercial Metals Company, and PineGate Renewables. This breadth of experience positions OnePlanet at the nexus of metals manufacturing, advanced materials recovery at industrial scale, and renewable energy asset management. The team was recently strengthened by two key hires—one with a background in advanced chemical production processes at 3M, Koch Industries, and Dow Chemical, and another with utility-scale sales experience at leading renewable energy OEMs including Trina Solar, Array Technologies, and Power Electronics.

About OnePlanet Solar Recycling, LLC

Founded in 2023, OnePlanet is a U.S.-based advanced materials recovery company developing large-scale, end-to-end solutions for solar asset owners. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, OnePlanet is building the infrastructure needed to keep millions of solar panels out of landfills—and putting valuable materials back into American supply chains. We are fully dedicated and committed in our resolve to supporting a true circular economy, whereby both production and consumption aspires to use and reuse materials, as many times as possible.

Learn more at www.1planetrecycling.com

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OnePlanet Solar Recycling, LLC
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SOURCE OnePlanet Solar Recycling