- The renewable energy industry will soon generate a lot of waste as the Biden administration pushes for more wind and solar power.
- Wind turbines, from steel towers to composite propellers, are typically 170 feet long and recyclable, but the vast majority end up in landfills, with a total of 2.2 million tons of landfill in landfill by 2050.
- Today, 90% of discarded or damaged solar panels end up in landfills, because disposal is much cheaper than recycling.
- "We've done a great job of making solar energy efficient and affordable, but we've done nothing to make it circular and end-of-life," said Suvi Sharma, CEO of SolarCycle.
© via CNBC Solarcycle CTO Pablo Dias and COO Rob Feng show investors and partners that solar panels are glass-free and clean. Plates hold most of their value in metals such as silver, silicon and copper.The importance of wind and solar power to America's energy grid and the emergence of electric vehicles are key to reducing the country's growing dependence on fossil fuels, reducing carbon emissions and tackling climate change.
But at the same time, this fast-growing renewable energy industry will soon generate tons of waste as millions of solar photovoltaic panels, wind turbines and lithium-ion batteries of electric vehicles reach the end of their life cycle.
But as the saying goes: one man's trash is another man's treasure. In the face of a past history of depletion of clean energy sources - and after coal mines were irresponsibly cleaned, oil wells and power plants closed - to avoid past sins - many new innovations are trying to create sustainable and sustainable energy. profitable cycle. Economies need to reuse, reuse and reuse critical elements of climate technology innovation.
According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), wind and solar combined generated 13.6% of utility-scale electricity last year, and the number is sure to increase as renewable energy continues to grow. Some of the country's major institutions are also ahead of this speed.
Meanwhile, sales of pure electric vehicles will account for 5.8% of the 13.8 million vehicles Americans buy in 2022, up from 3.2% in 2021. And with new exhaust emission limits and power generation regulations, sales electric vehicles could increase. 67% market share by 2032 and additional utilities will accelerate their transition to power generation.
Solar Cycle is a great example of a company looking to solve the future problem of climate technology waste. The company started last year in Oakland, California, and has since built a recycling facility in Odessa, Texas that extracts 95% of the material from solar panels and feeds it into the supply chain. It sells the silver and copper it produces to the commodities market and glass, silicon and aluminum to panel manufacturers and solar park operators.
Suvi Sharma, CEO of SolarCycle, cited an EIA report as saying that 54% of new utility-scale power generation capacity in the United States this year will be solar powered. But it brings with it a new set of challenges and opportunities. We've done a good job of making solar energy economical and cheap, but we've done nothing to make it circular and manage its end-of-life [panels].
Keep solar panels away from landfills
The average lifespan of solar panels is 25 to 30 years, said Sharma, with more than 500 million installed nationwide, ranging from dozens on rooftops to thousands on commercial solar farms. As solar power increases 21% annually, tens of millions more panels will go up and down. In According to a 2019 study published in the Journal of Renewable Energy, around 9.8 million tonnes of solar panel waste is expected to accumulate between 2030 and 2060.
Today, 90% of discarded or damaged solar panels end up in landfills, because disposal is much cheaper than recycling. "We expect the gap to close significantly over the next five to 10 years," said Sharma, "due to more profitable recycling and rising landfill costs."
SOLARYCLE focuses on recycling high quality materials from solar panels
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In fact, the market for recycled solar panel materials is expected to grow exponentially over the next few years. According to a report by researcher Rystad Energy, it will be worth more than $2.7 billion by 2030, down from just $170 million last year, and will grow to around $80 billion in 2030-2050. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) uses modest government subsidies to recycle materials. This could meet 30 to 50 percent of US solar production needs by 2040.
The bipartisan Infrastructure and Inflation Act (IRA) provides tax credits and funding for domestic production of solar modules and components and research into new solar technologies. According to a recent report by the International Energy Agency, the measures aim to reduce China's dominance in the global solar module supply chain, which now accounts for 80 percent.
One recipient of this federal grant is First Solar, the largest solar panel manufacturer in the United States. In Founded in 1999 in Tempe, Arizona, the company has a manufacturing facility in Ohio and another under construction in Alabama. The company received $7.3 million in research funding to develop new residential ceiling panels that are more efficient than existing thin-film or silicone components.
First Solar has had an internal recycling program since 2005, Chief Product Officer Pat Buehler said via email. "We recognize that integrating recycling into our operations is key to the company's sustainable development," he wrote. Instead of extracting metal and glass from abandoned modules and creating waste, "our recycling process recovers the semiconductor in a new part in a closed loop."
The giant wind turbines and propellers are almost entirely recyclable.
Used wind turbines pose another recycling challenge and offer job opportunities. The wind energy industry in the United States began installing turbines in the early 1980s and has continued to grow since then. The American Clean Energy Association estimates that there are currently about 72,000 large turbines installed nationwide, all but seven of which are located offshore, and generate 10.2% of the nation's electricity.
While the industry has slowed over the last two years due to supply chain issues, inflation and inflation, turbine and wind farm manufacturers are optimistic, especially given the promise of IRA subsidies and tax breaks for green energy projects. The Biden administration to boost the nascent offshore wind sector.
Wind turbines have a lifespan of around 20 years and most decommissioned wind turbines end up in landfills with discarded solar panels. However, everything that makes up the turbine, from the steel turret to the composite blades, is typically 170 feet long, although recent models are over 350 feet long.
In By 2021, according to the NREL study, 3,000 to 9,000 blades will be lost annually for the next five years, then the number will increase to 10,000 to 20,000 in 2040. In By 2050, 235,000 propellers will be out of service. This corresponds to a total weight of 2.2 million tonnes - or more than 60,627 fully loaded semi trailers.
How does the renewable energy circular economy work?
Circular economy actors are determined not to waste all this waste.
Founded in 2019, Knoxville-based Carbon Rivers has developed technologies that turn composites from the automotive, construction and marine industries into fiberglass through casting and pyrolysis processes that go beyond making turbine blades. "Next-generation turbines can be used to make turbine blades, ships, precast concrete and automotive parts," said chief strategy officer David Morgan, adding that the process would enable the recycling of renewable oil and syngas.
While handling the cut material is easy, transporting large turbine blades and other composite materials over long distances by rail and truck is more complicated. "The logistics of this whole process is the most expensive part," Morgan said.
In addition to facilities in Tennessee and Texas, Carbon Rivers plans to build sites near wind farms and other data sources in Florida, Pennsylvania, and Idaho over the next three years. "We want to build five more factories in England and Europe and then enter the South American and Asian markets," he said.
In the spirit of corporate sustainability – specifically to prevent their blades from ending up in landfills – wind turbine manufacturers contract with recycling partners. In December 2020, GE's renewable energy division signed a long-term contract with Boston-based Veolia North America to recycle waste from GE's offshore turbines in the United States.
According to Julie Angulo, senior vice president of engineering and performance, Missouri's Veolia North America 2020 recycling facility has so far processed about 2,600 knives. "We're seeing the first wave of razors aged 10 to 12, but we know that number will increase year over year," he said.
Using a process known as 'co-firing', Veolia processes rotor blades and other composite materials into fuel and sells them to producers of cement instead of coal, sand and petroleum. The process reduces carbon dioxide emissions from cement production by 27 percent and water consumption by 13 percent.
"Cement producers want to get out of coal for reasons of CO2," said Angulo. "That's a good choice, so they are good partners for us."
Competitor GE Wind Turbines is developing ways to make its next generation of blades inherently recyclable. Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy has started producing fully recyclable blades for its onshore and offshore wind farms and has announced plans to make all of its turbines fully recyclable by 2040. Vestas Wind Systems is committed to producing zero-waste wind turbines. "Until 2040, though he hasn't built such a version yet. In February, Vestas introduced a new solution that allows turbine blades based on Epoxy to be broken down and reused.
Lithium battery waste for electric vehicles
Lithium-ion batteries have been used since the early 1990s, initially in laptops, cell phones and other consumer electronics, and in the last two decades in energy storage systems and electric vehicles. The recycling of precious metals — lithium, cobalt, nickel and copper — is a focus for electric vehicles, especially as automakers ramp up production by building massive battery factories. However, current electric vehicle batteries have a lifespan of 10 to 20 years or 100,000 to 200,000 miles; So today's recyclers are dealing with waste from battery manufacturers.
in the supply chain. To avoid the high transportation costs of transporting raw materials from different locations, the Lee-Cycle is geographically divided into four locations—Alabama, Arizona, New York, and Ontario—from which minerals are extracted. A large facility is under construction in Rochester, New York, where materials will be processed.
"We are on track to bring our Rochester facility online later this year," said Ajay Kochhlar, co-founder and CEO of Li-Cycle. The construction was financed by a $375 million loan from the Department of Energy (DOE), and the company has raised nearly $1 billion in private equity financing since going public, he said.
Taking a different approach to battery recycling is Redwood Materials, founded in 2017 in Reno, Nevada by JB Straubel, former chief technology officer and co-founder of Tesla. Redwood uses hydrometallurgy to break down batteries and waste, but also makes copper foil from anode and cathode active materials to make new batteries for electric vehicles. Because raw materials are scarce, only about 30% of the nickel and lithium for cathode products comes from recycled sources, the rest from newly produced metals.
Former Tesla CTO JB Straubel handles battery recycling with redwood equipment.
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الطاقة في NREL: "من المهم التأكد من اعتبارنا سياق هذه التقنيات الناشئة وفهم دورة حياتها الك املة" "يوفر الاقتصاد الدائري الكثير من الفرص له ذه الصناعات لتكون مستدامة وصديقة للبيئة قدر الإمكان في مرحلة مبكرة."
