Various mixing ratios of HF and HNO3 were applied in the process of etching the c-Si solar cells for the recovery of a Si wafer. The recovery of the Si wafer from a 4″ end-of-life solar cell under the optimum etching condition was conducted. The c-Si wafer obtained from the chemical etching process was applied to the commercial solar cell fabrication process. PV performance of the solar cell was evaluated to the efficiency of 17.6%.