Solar, wind, and battery waste in Europe

Introduction

The EU’s shift toward renewable electricity is an imperative step in its strategy to mitigate the effects of climate change. With a target of generating 42.5% of its electricity from renewable energy sources (RES) by 2030, the energy transition is well underway. Yet alongside the environmental benefits of this transformation, managing the significant volumes of waste generated by renewable energy infrastructure is becoming an ever-increasing challenge.

From solar panels and wind turbines to battery energy storage systems (BESS), the build-out of green technologies requires large quantities of valuable materials, including steel, copper, aluminium, concrete, and fiberglass, as well as critical raw materials such as silicon, cobalt, lithium, and rare-earth elements. Changing technology designs and increasing deployment are all contributing to rising end-of-life volumes.

Recent analyses from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the European Federation for Transport and Environment shed light on the quantities of materials expected to come from solar, wind, and battery waste in the coming decades. In this article, we explore projected waste volumes from solar panels, wind power, and batteries, and examine the EU’s material recovery targets designed to ensure these resources remain in the economy for as long as possible.