Clusters of wind turbines and roofs covered with solar photovoltaic (PV) panels have become as familiar to most of us as electricity lines and poles. And it almost goes without saying how essential these installations are: solar and wind energy are fundamental in helping countries around the world achieve net zero emission targets.
But there is an environmental paradox which sits at the heart of our requirement for these renewables: when the equipment used to generate the energy reaches the end of its life, it becomes electronic waste (e-waste), unless it can be reused in other forms or for another purpose or its materials recycled. According to most experts working in the field, wind turbines have a lifespan of between 20 and 30 years. That means that there is a generation of wind turbines – a massive number of which were installed in the early 2000s – about to reach the end of its life. As IEC wind energy expert Alistair Mackinnon puts it in a previous e-tech interview, “Wind has become a mature and multi-billion industry, which is having to meet new challenges. One of them is the lifecycle of wind turbines.”
For solar panels, the lifespan can be longer and reach up to 40 years, according to some estimates. But even if they last longer, as some of the early models were manufactured before the noughties, end-of-life issues have to be addressed.
There are many regulatory incentives – notably the WEE directive in Europe – which attempt to stop countries from discarding e-waste in landfills or incinerating it. Despite this, this UK company which manages waste across the country estimates that approximately 350 million tonnes of e-waste is currently in landfills worldwide. And part of this e-waste is increasingly likely, at least in part, to come from crushed solar panels and discarded wind blades. One of the main problems is that some of the materials used for both renewable energy systems are difficult to recycle.
Solar panel cells are generally made of silicon. Glass, polymers and metals such as aluminium and copper are also part of the mix in the panel and the electronics used to make it work. While glass is relatively easy to recover and recycle, silicon is tricky. And as recycling targets are based on weight, it is easier to recycle the heavier glass components and ignore the lighter materials. As Tony Sample, the Chair of the IEC Technical Committee which prepares standards for solar PV systems, IEC TC 82, explains in this e-tech article: “It’s easy to meet targets by recycling aluminium frames, cables and glass. The difficult part is the module itself.”
It is also expensive: costs include transport to specialized recycling facilities, which are few and far between. Mechanical recycling is possible, such as using disassembled solar modules disintegrated into small pieces for road fill. This company’s activities include that type or recovery.
According to Secretary of TC 82 George Kelly, in this interview, companies specializing in that area “estimate that over 75% of a PV module can now be recycled thanks to innovative and high-performance processing and sorting techniques.” More needs to be done to industrialize recycling processes, Kelly says, to bring costs down and make the business model viable.
Most problems arise with the materials used for the rotor blades of wind turbines. “Wind turbine blades are generally made of epoxy resin and other materials which are difficult to recycle,” Mackinnon admits. Epoxy resin is a thermosetting polymer which has many great properties, including mechanical strength, chemical resistance as well as thermal stability, but these properties are also what makes it virtually impossible to recycle as it cannot be melted.
New materials, particularly thermoplastic composites, which can be melted down to extract reusable resin, are now beginning to be used in the manufacturing process of turbine blades. Some new epoxy formulations are also designed to be recyclable. For existing epoxy resin blades, mechanical recycling solutions have included smashing the blades into small pieces for use in cement, concrete or fibre boards for flooring and walls. Some companies have specialized in that type of mechanical recycling, as with those involved in the repurposing of solar modules.
Circular economy models encourage the repair and longer use of electronic devices rather than their recycling, which is viewed as a last resort. Recycling is not only costly, but the process of recycling emits greenhouse gases and so does the transport to recycling facilities. The same analysis can be applied to solar panels and wind turbines. An IEC Publicly Available Specification (PAS), which is yet to be published, is expected to facilitate the repair and reuse of solar panels.
Kelly elaborates: “Our project team has been looking at several different scenarios and the most useful ways to address them. In one scenario, it is worth simply repairing the module for it to have a longer working life, because the repair is easy to make and not too costly. In another scenario, the system may need replacing but the module itself is perfectly fine and can be used for a second life in remote and poor communities who can’t afford to install the most recent tech. And a third one is about recycling the materials in the system.”
The same thinking is taking place in IEC TC 88, the technical committee which prepares standards for wind energy systems. In 2025, the TC published IEC 61400-28 , which sets out the minimum requirements to extend the life of wind farm assets in a safe manner. It is included in IECRE, (IEC System for Certification to Standards Relating to Equipment for Use in Renewable Energy Applications), which is working on an operational document on the life extension of wind turbines. IECRE is the most recent of the four IEC Conformity Assessment Systems and focuses on providing third party certification and testing services for all power plants producing, storing, or converting energy from wind, marine and solar PV energy.
“The idea is to ensure that wind turbine assets that are used beyond their initial lifecycle still perform safely and efficiently. By working hand in hand, experts from TC 88 and IECRE can promote the idea of a more circular economy in the wind sector,” says IECRE Secretary Wolfram Zeitz.
By adopting circular economy models, wind turbine and solar module manufacturers can help to solve the environmental conundrum of being essential to reducing emissions and nevertheless increasing e-waste.
Author: Catherine Bischofberger
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a global, not-for-profit membership organization that brings together 174 countries and coordinates the work of 30.000 experts globally. IEC International Standards and conformity assessment underpin international trade in electrical and electronic goods. They facilitate electricity access and verify the safety, performance and interoperability of electric and electronic devices and systems, including for example, consumer devices such as mobile phones or refrigerators, office and medical equipment, information technology, electricity generation, and much more.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.
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