The shift from old fossil fuel power plants to renewable electricity infrastructure will create increasing amounts of diverse wastes. JRC scientists estimate current and future amounts, and look into ways to make them part of the circular economy.
Closure of obsolete fossil fuel plants and deployment of photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy infrastructure result in growing volumes of diverse waste of materials. These include valuable recyclable materials, such as steel, copper, aluminium, concrete, fibreglass and glass, critical raw materials such as silicon, cobalt, lithium and rare-earth elements, and construction and demolition waste.
Changing factors such as increasing renewable energy targets, updated technology and designs, or service lifetimes prompt a rethinking of future waste volumes. A JRC report,
Circular Economy Strategies for the EU's Renewable Electricity Supply, quantifies the materials stemming from decommissioning of fossil fuel plants, and of solar and wind electricity infrastructure until 2023, and assesses the future of PV and wind wastes until 2050.
How much PV and wind turbine waste and when?
For PVs alone, the EU-27 will cumulatively amass 6-13 and 21-35 million tonnes of PV waste by 2040 and 2050 respectively. According to the report, efficient recycling of waste panels can significantly contribute to the EU ambition to reach 40% domestic manufacturing of renewable energy systems. If collected and recycled appropriately, silver from PV panels could cover the demand for new PV manufacturing.
By 2030, there could be 42,500 wind turbines in the EU, and 86,000 by 2050. Wind power infrastructure is expected to generate more waste than solar power infrastructure by 2050. Annual wind turbine wastes by 2050 are estimated at 10 million tonnes.
For comparison purposes, Eurostat’s 2021 estimate of collected waste from portable batteries and accumulators (all materials) between 2012 and 2021 is 883,812 tonnes. Both PV and wind power infrastructure waste streams require special handling and recycling methods that are not widespread in Europe today.
New estimates of recyclable materials
Steel, aluminium, and copper are resources present in all the three sectors, used throughout the electricity supply chain. By 2023, the cumulative volume of steel in solar PVs (10,940 tonnes), wind turbines (274,194 tonnes), and decommissioned fossil fuel plants is estimated at 5.9 million tonnes, to which renewables contribute with 285,000 tonnes.
Cumulative aluminium waste from PV panels and wind turbines is estimated at 162,736 tonnes, and copper at 154,883 tonnes by 2023.
By 2050, PV panels and wind turbines will generate annual waste including 2.9 million tonnes of steel, 191,527 tonnes of aluminium and 52,874 tonnes of copper.
Waste from decommissioned fossil fuel power plants is primarily concrete with limited recycling options. An estimated 23.5 million tonnes of concrete would have been decommissioned between 2014-2023.
Opportunities for renewable electricity infrastructure
Building active secondary markets for reused and recycled materials in parallel to the transition to renewable electricity infrastructure will reduce the need for primary raw materials, minimise waste, and contribute to strengthening the EU’s strategic autonomy.
The report provides new data and identifies three actionable policy themes that support the transition to a circular economy for renewable electricity infrastructure waste:
- harmonising waste management regulation
- examining reuse options
- incentivising recycling.
Background
The EU's transition to renewable electricity is a critical step towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change. With the EU aiming to increase the share of renewable energy in its energy mix to 42.5% by 2030, the transformation of electricity-generating infrastructure from fossil fuels to renewable technologies is under way. Today’s actions to increase material circularity of renewable electricity infrastructure, and avoiding waste will positively impact the environment, the EU’s innovative edge, and lives of future generations.
The Joint Research Centre (JRC) has carried out the exploratory research project Circular Economy Pathway for Renewable Electricity Supply (CEPRES), of which this report is part, to tackle part of the waste management challenges of this transition. Earlier work focused on
critical raw materials such as lithium and rare earth elements.
Related links
Circular Economy Strategies for the EU's Renewable Electricity Supply
RMIS - Critical raw materials
REPowerEU