In a quiet town in Swiss watchmaking country, a company called Panatere has inaugurated two solar furnaces designed to melt down stainless steel offcuts from local firms and recycle them into new ingots. The project aims to establish a low-carbon loop for the region’s precision manufacturing supply chain, tells Tech Xplore.
La Chaux-de-Fonds, nestled in the Jura Mountains, has long been a center for watch and medical instrument production, where high-performance steel is a key raw material. Instead of sending waste metal offsite or discarding it, Panatere plans to redirect that resource back to local manufacturers. Their goal is to produce 1,000 tonnes of recycled steel annually using solar heat, with furnaces that can reach temperatures near 2,000°C.
The solar setup includes a field of mirrors (a 140 m² heliostat) and a 10-meter dish-shaped concentrator that focuses sunlight onto a crucible. Challenges had to be tackled, such as mirror alignment under wind, cleaning dust (even Sahara dust drifts occasionally), and dealing with Swiss winters. Panatere’s CEO, Raphael Broye, says the demonstration is a decade in the making, with plans to scale up operations by 2028, possibly relocating to higher altitudes to benefit from increased sun exposure.
Economics matter here: metal prices have soared, and “waste” is often more valuable than many realize. By shortening the supply chain (waste to ingots, then back to local industry), Panatere is betting that local recycling powered by renewables can compete even in high-wage Switzerland. Broye calls it restoring prestige to short, transparent supply networks.
This effort is more than green branding. It shows that concentrated solar energy can serve heavy industrial processes such as metal recycling, not just electrified systems or light loads. If Panatere can scale reliably, solar furnaces may become a tool for decarbonizing industries that until now have struggled to escape fossil fuels.