Hokuriku Electric Power Company has developed interlocking blocks, a pavement concrete material that reuses waste glass from solar panels and fly ash generated at the company’s coal-fired power plant. The mixture of waste glass from PV Modules and fly ash produced by the company can suppress alkali-silica reaction while maintaining a certain level of strength.

The blocks will be used in the pavement of the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan (FEPC) pavilion at the Osaka-Kansai Expo to be held in 2025, and the company aims to expand its business domain by manufacturing the blocks as a means of recycling solar panels, which are feared to be disposed of in large quantities in the 2030s.