ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,343,775, issued on July 1, was assigned to SOLARCYCLE Inc. (Mesa, Ariz.).
"Solar module recycling and testing" was invented by Pablo Ribeiro Dias (Odessa, Texas) and Suvi Sharma (Odessa, Texas).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Embodiments relate to one or more techniques that may be employed alone or in combination, in the refurbishment or recycling of used solar modules. In certain approaches, a (heated) wire may be used to cut through one or more layers (e.g., front encapsulant, back encapsulant, both front and back encapsulant, backsheet) of a solar module that is being recycled or refurbished. Some approaches may employ testing of a used...