Potential for a circular economy for sustainable large-scale renewable energy systems

Abstract

The renewable energy industry has been in rapid progression to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050. In this process, we cannot ignore the inevitable and continual decommissioning of a multitude of generation and transmission systems at their end-of-life, leading to a very large mass of waste being produced. With renewable generator lifespans ranging between 20-30 years, there is a limited period to develop a plan to re-introduce materials from these systems into future projects. This paper aims to discuss the status of our renewable energy market and the material available for re-use. This review relies on company and government reports, published work and other sources to establish the material that exists in our solar and wind farms, battery storage and transmission systems, and future changes expected. Then, we collate the options for recycling and the output of these existing recycling processes to separate and reuse the materials collected. There is a significant overlap in material across the generation and transmission networks which could be introduced into the circular economy through mass processing. At present some of this already have proposed uses, but most still goes to landfill, removing them from the circular process we aim to achieve. This research highlights the difficulty in achieving sustainability aspect of the renewable energy industry and some opportunities for introducing all material into the circular economy. This problem is handled for the energy industry and policy makers as well as encouraging those in recycling to take up this challenge.

Keywords

• Circular economy
• Renewable energy
• Recycling
• Sustainability

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