The need for clean energy is great. Ocean temperatures continue to rise, and one consequence of this increase is the intensification of extreme weather events. In the U.S. alone, we’re seeing destructive wildfires and droughts, dangerous floods and tornadoes, and snowfall that’s higher than houses.
The shift to alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind, is crucial. In the rush to get solar on houses and wind turbines on mountains and offshore, less thought went into what happens decades later. Solar panels generally have a 20-to-30-year lifespan. What happens in 30 years?
Reclaiming materials from end-of-life solar panels and wind turbines is important, but few have thought about how to safely reclaim the materials in the different components. What do you do with old microinverters, solar panels, turbine generator power supplies, controllers, etc., when they reach their end of life?
The Growing Challenge of Solar and Wind End-of-Life Management
One challenge with solar and wind end-of-life recycling is that the laws are lax. Most solar panels have metals like cadmium and lead in components like the semiconductors. Those are harmful and considered hazardous waste by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
While solar and wind technology should be handled as hazardous waste, it’s not so clear-cut. The same manufacturer can have some system components that are considered hazardous waste while others aren’t. It makes it difficult to understand whether or not to recycle.
Another aspect is who pays for recycling. The EPA’s budget was reduced from $10.2 million under Biden to a meager $4.2 million in the 2026 discretionary budget passed by Trump. It’s a third of where funding was during the Bush and Clinton presidencies. As a result, the EPA must slash funding to programs like clean air, safe drinking water, and hazardous waste regulations.
Ideally, producer responsibility should cover the cost of recycling, but many systems nearing their end of life were installed without such protections in place. Homeowners and business owners may be responsible for the cost of recycling.
With current estimates putting the amount of solar panel waste at 10 million tons (early loss) and 7.5 million tons (regular loss) by 2050, it’s uncertain if there are enough resources in place to safely recycle this technology. The cost of recycling facilities, equipment, and workers has to be considered.
Wind turbine waste is another issue. A wind turbine contains metals (copper and steel) that are already easily recycled. However, there’s a bigger problem. A wind turbine blade is made of fiberglass and resin. They’re lightweight and durable, but they’re harder to recycle. The size of a turbine is also problematic, as they would take up far too much space in a landfill. Safety while breaking these giant blades down is important. You also need enough room to do so.
How Solar Panels Are Recycled
Reclaiming the different materials from solar panels and other components requires specialized training and care to ensure hazardous materials are recycled properly. We’ve broken down the key steps and processes.
1. Deconstruction:
The electrical junction box and aluminum frame are separated from the rest of the panel’s material. Those metals eventually get melted down and used in new products.
2. Separation:
The solar panel consists of silicon and glass. There’s also metal wiring. Each of these is carefully separated to move them to the appropriate recycling bin. Glass is processed for reuse. Silicon layers are separated to remove the silicon cells, copper, silver, and other metals.
Wiring often has a plastic coating to keep out moisture. Depending on the type of plastic, it can be stripped from the metal wire, melted, and reused.
How Wind Turbines Are Recycled
With a wind turbine, some components can easily be reused. That includes the tower. Others must be recycled. Take a closer look at what’s recycled and how it’s done.
1. Wind Turbine Blades
Fiberglass is a durable, waterproof material made from fibers of glass and plastic. It’s hard to recycle those two components and return them as a raw material. For that reason, some end up in a landfill, but there are better ways to recycle them.
They’re large, but fiberglass blades can be cut into smaller pieces using mechanical recycling processes. Once they’re in manageable pieces, they’re fed into shredders. The small particles are used in cement decking boards, railroad ties, 3D printing materials, or alternatives to wooden pallets.
Carbon fiber blades are often shredded and moved into kilns, where they replace coal as the fuel used to fire the kiln. It’s considered a more environmentally-friendly means of firing a cement kiln, but emissions must be properly filtered.
These blades can also be repurposed. A wind turbine is a good noise barrier along busy interstates. They’ve been used as bus shelters, roofing shingles for outdoor buildings like sheds, and outdoor furniture.
Not all blades are made of fiberglass. Depending on the type and size of the wind turbine, there may be metal blades, balsa wood, or PVC plastic. Those materials are easier to recycle because you can reuse metal, wood, and plastic.
2. Metal and Plastic Components
The electrical components, gears, outer shell, and shafts are often made from metals and plastic. They can all be collected and recycled.
The metals found in a wind turbine include mainly aluminum, copper, and steel. Those are all easily shredded, melted down, and reused. Plastic components are also shredded, melted, and reused.
3. The Rest of a Turbine
If a turbine is on a concrete base, that base can be demolished. The larger pieces are used as backfill for support under parking lots, new roadways, and driveways.
Where to Get Help With Recycling
Safely reclaiming materials from solar and wind technologies is an important step in the growing demand for renewable energy. Installations are one aspect, but eventually those components reach their end of life. At that stage, they must be safely, responsibly recycled.
State governments, solar and wind manufacturers, and the U.S. government need to work together to form safe, environmentally friendly recycling policies. Consumers and business owners need to make sure they understand their responsibility when it comes to a system’s end-of-life.
If you need help finding a company that can recycle wind and solar energy systems responsibly, reach out to the e-recycling experts at ERI. We specialize in local collections and recycling to recover as much material from old equipment as possible. We do so in safe, environmentally-friendly ways as our promise to put our workers, community members, and the environment first.