SOLAR AND CLEAN FUELS US CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Renewable Energy Waste Challenges While China leads wind energy production, producing three times more than the US, they had, until recently, also been absorbing global waste. In 2018, China’s “National Sword” policy halted the import of global plastics and other materials destined for its recycling processors. The US, second place in wind energy, is now scrambling to find new ways to dispose of its turbine waste. Glass and fiberglass recycling has had trouble creating a sustainable post-consumer-based profit model due to impurities that cannot be easily eliminated for re-use. New research in polymerization allows the consideration of new plastic, glass and fiberglass waste streams, even as planting substrates. Despite having appointed fossil fuel executive Chris Wright - a climate change sceptic who criticises zero-emission targets and actively opposes the transition to renewable energy - as secretary for the Department of Energy, President Elect Donald Trump has spoken (on the Joe Rogan podcast) about the amount of waste produced by the wind industry in the US. While the majority of his remarks focused on the negative effects of the vibrations emitted by wind turbines on marine life (“I’d love to be a whale psychologist”), he has since vowed to ‘end’ offshore wind. He claims it is the most expensive and least environmentally friendly source to develop, opposing the Inflation Reduction Act which allowed billions to be invested into the green transition and meeting the requirements of the Paris Agreement. While Trump might be guided by market logic rather than a real concern for the environment, it remains essential to the circular economy to incentivise the proper waste management since, more than anything else, it is consuming valuable space on US soil. The Life of a US Wind Turbine First generation wind farms installed as early as the 1990s - after having
exhausted the refurbishment cycle - face three potential endings for wind turbine blades, once the metal parts have been extracted: repurposing, recycling or landfill. As a result, blades account for most unrecycled wind turbine materials. Turbine blades are partially composed of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials (glass and carbon fibers, epoxy resin), making conventional recycling complex, costly and potentially hazardous. Up to 86% of total lifecycle emissions for wind power comes from raw materials extraction and turbine manufacturing, while the remaining 14% comes from transportation, installation, operation and maintenance, decommissioning and disposal. The average turbine height has more than doubled over the last 20 years and continues to increase. While this makes power generation more efficient, indirect emissions are impacted. While there are solutions currently available, costs will need to come down significantly to make
While renewables hold the promise of a secure energy future for all, what of the waste this sector creates? What lessons can the US take from the rest of the world to ensure it isn’t overwhelmed by waste from solar and wind projects?
What is a circular economy? A circular economy is a sector-specific system that aims to reduce waste, costs, and achieve environmental and financial sustainability by keeping materials and products in circulation for >Ã}>ëÃÃLi°> circular economy, materi- als are reused, refurbished, recycled and composted, and products are designed at inception to be less resource intensive in their deconstruc- ÌÀ>`>«ÌÛiÀiÕÃi° many cases, products which may be highly ergonomic and efficient are largely unsustain- able outside of their design- VÌiÝÌ°"ViÌ iÞ>ÀiÀiÌÀi` from use, their future lies in >`v°
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THE FUTURE OF ENERGY
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