The Race to Recycle Renewable Energy
- Massive waste from old wind turbines, solar panels, and EV batteries threatens the green transition’s sustainability goals.
- Companies are developing innovative recycling solutions, from reusing turbine blades to recovering metals from old solar panels and batteries.
- Expanding recycling capacity and enforcing stronger waste regulations are vital to creating a circular, low-carbon energy economy.
With the renewable energy sector growing rapidly on a global scale, as many governments pursue a green transition, the need to recycle more components has become evident. Finding innovative ways to recycle renewable energy equipment could help significantly cut costs and reduce waste, further supporting the sector’s green ambitions. There is great potential for a range of components to be reused and recycled, from solar panels to wind turbines and electric vehicle (EV) batteries. However, greater research and investment must be contributed to the sector to improve practices and make recycling options more accessible. As interest and investment in renewable energy increase, we are seeing more technological advancements across the sector. Wind turbines have become bigger and more powerful, while solar panels have been getting cheaper and more efficient. This means that old technologies are becoming outdated more quickly, leading to their replacement. Once a renewable energy component reaches the end of its lifecycle, it is normally removed and replaced by something bigger, stronger, and better. What is done with these old components varies massively from country to country.
Often, old turbine blades or photovoltaic (PV) panels are stockpiled for long periods of time as companies decide what to do with them. Waste from the renewable energy sector is significant, with Europe expected to dismantle around 14,000 wind turbines by the end of the decade. This would result in between 40,000 and 60,000 tonnes of blade waste, according to WindEurope. Meanwhile, in the United States, wind turbine blade waste could reach anywhere between 200,000 to 370,000 tonnes a year by 2050.
Greater innovation in recycling could help reduce waste and cut costs by putting old components to good use. However, recycling old renewable energy parts is not always so simple. Steel and other materials that can be easily recycled account for around 85 to 90 percent of the makeup of a wind turbine, but the glass fibre or carbon fibre blades are much more complicated to recycle. The difficulties in recycling have not put operators off, with more innovative solutions being seen year on year. In a bid to become more sustainable, after years of discarding old blades and other components, several wind firms have pledged to invest in recycling operations to prevent old components from going to landfill.
In Scotland, old blades from the Hagshaw Hill windfarm are being recycled to provide a hybrid polymer to be used to produce precast concrete alternatives or replace virgin plastics. Meanwhile, Spanish energy firm Iberdrola aims to transform 10,000 tonnes of blade waste annually at its blade recycling facility on the Iberian Peninsula. It will use glass fibres and resins from the turbines to produce new blades to be used across a range of sectors, from aerospace to construction.
Related: Spain’s Clean Energy Dilemma
In the solar energy sector, various innovations are being seen. For example, in Brisbane, Australia, solar panels are being transformed into silver and copper. Operators are removing aluminium and wires from PVs that can no longer produce energy to grind them up into plastic, glass, silicon, silver, and copper. Pan Pacific Recycling is now processing around 30,000 panels a year and hopes to eventually increase its annual capacity to 240,000 panels.
Global solar panel waste is currently far higher than the recycling capacity for this waste, meaning that greater investment is needed in the sector to expand capacity and improve sustainability by preventing old solar panels from going to landfill. In addition, experts suggest that many of the solar panels being replaced with more efficient models are still capable of producing energy and could be reused in a different context rather than discarded. Several startups, such as Australian Second Life Solar, are working to encourage the reuse of old solar panels in alternative settings to provide clean energy and prevent unnecessary waste.
Some of the greatest advancements have been seen in EV battery recycling, as companies worldwide strive to improve their critical mineral supply chains. The lithium supply used for EV battery production is finite, meaning that once supplies are depleted, we will no longer be able to produce this type of battery. However, extracting the lithium from old EV batteries could allow EV makers to reuse the critical mineral, rather than relying wholly on mining projects for their lithium supply. Other minerals that can be extracted from these batteries include nickel, cobalt, and graphite.
Various companies from different regions of the world are now investing in expanding and improving recycling practices, although the industry’s recycling capacity still falls far behind the production of new wind turbine blades and solar panels, suggesting that greater funding is needed to accelerate the global component recycling capacity. In addition, governments could encourage companies to invest in recycling activities by introducing stricter rules and regulations on renewable energy waste, thereby helping the industry to become more sustainable.
By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com
Can U.S. Hydropower Compete in a New Energy Era?
- Over 450 U.S. hydro plants need relicensing within a decade, demanding billions in upgrades to meet environmental and safety standards.
- Falling costs of gas, wind, and solar power are undercutting hydropower’s competitiveness despite its reliability.
- New federal incentives and major private deals, such as Google’s $3 billion partnership with Brookfield, could help rejuvenate the aging sector.
The United States has long used hydropower, which is now the country’s largest source of renewable energy, for electricity production. Hydropower contributed 27 percent of total U.S. utility-scale renewable electricity generation and 5.86 percent of total utility-scale electricity production in 2024. The U.S. first started developing its hydropower fleet in the late 1800s, long before other renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power.
Hydropower plants produce electricity using the elevation difference created by a dam or diversion structure. Water flows in one side and exits at a lower point, spinning a turbine, which runs a generator to produce electricity. However, of the more than 90,000 dams in the United States, fewer than 3 percent produce power, with the others being used for recreation, farm ponds, flood control, water supply, and irrigation.
While there is huge potential for hydropower in the United States, many of the existing facilities are getting older and more expensive to maintain. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was launched under the Biden administration provides $753.6 million to the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) for hydropower, but significantly more funding would be required to expand rather than solely maintain the country’s hydropower capacity.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects hydropower generation to rise by 7.5 percent in 2025, after falling by 241 billion kilowatt-hours (BkWh) in 2024, to its lowest generation since 2010. Generation is expected to reach 259.1 BkWh this year, to contribute around 6 percent of U.S. electricity production. Approximately half of the hydropower generating capacity in the U.S. is in the western states of Washington, Oregon, and California.
Energy experts suggest that now may be a make-or-break moment for hydropower, as several existing facilities require high quantities of funding to extend their lifespans. Almost 450 hydroelectric plants, which contribute over 16 GW of electricity in total, are due to be relicensed across the U.S. over the next 10 years. This accounts for around 40 percent of non-federal hydropower.
However, the introduction of stricter requirements will require millions of dollars to be spent on upgrades to qualify for a new operating permit for existing facilities, which is forcing many companies to close operations. Many of these plants have been providing vast quantities of stable, clean electricity for decades. However, the falling costs associated with natural gas, wind, and solar power have made it increasingly difficult for hydropower to compete.
Most dams in the U.S. have an average age of 65 years, meaning they were built without the same consideration for the environment that is now expected for hydropower development. Upgrading old facilities to enable the unobstructed passage for fish and other wildlife, as well as meeting other environmental standards, would be extremely expensive for operators. In addition, many of these facilities require significant investment to fix or replace turbines and other hardware that have atrophied over time.
Another barrier to relicensing is the lack of clear oversight for the sector. No single agency has full authority over hydropower. This can make the bureaucratic process for a new license extremely complex, as various agencies may have different standards and expectations for operators. At present, it takes an average of eight years to relicense an existing hydropower facility, which is far longer than for other energy sources.
In January, the Biden administration’s Treasury Department expanded a renewable energy rule to include hydropower, which treats facilities as new if operators reinvest a minimum of 80 percent of the facility’s market value into infrastructure upgrades, making them eligible for larger federal write-offs. Only one hydropower facility has used the federal investment tax credit to date, as, until recently, there was a lack of clear guidance on how to apply the tax credit.
While President Trump has been highly critical of many renewable energy sources, hydropower is one of the few clean energies that Trump appears to support. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act preserves the sector’s access to key federal tax credits for the next eight years, which could help reassure investors.
There have been some positive signs for the hydropower sector in recent months, with the signing of a $3 billion hydropower deal between Google and Brookfield Asset Management in July. Google hopes the project will provide up to 3 GW of hydropower for its data centres. The move includes 20-year power purchase agreements for two hydropower facilities in Pennsylvania. The two sites are expected to be upgraded and relicensed as part of the arrangement, and Google aims to eventually expand the deal beyond the two initial sites to other parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, the company said.
“This collaboration with Brookfield is a significant step forward, ensuring clean energy supply in the PJM region where we operate,” Google’s head of data centre energy, Amanda Peterson Corio, said in a statement.
To enable hydropower plants to continue providing a significant proportion of the United States’ clean electricity, significant funding must be contributed to the sector to make facilities eligible for relicensing. Many plants require millions of dollars in upgrades, which most operators simply cannot afford. Meanwhile, the falling cost of gas, solar, and wind power has made hydropower less competitive in recent years, despite its long history in the U.S. and significant contribution to the country’s clean energy mix.
By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com
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