China Is the World’s Largest Producer of Renewables, But It Has a Problem: What to Do With All the Used Turbines and Panels

China faces a huge energy challenge, not just in terms of increasing renewable energy or moving toward a decarbonized economy, but in preparing for the enormous technological waste these efforts will generate over the next few years. Solar panels and wind turbines may be environmental partners while in operation, but once they reach the end of their useful life, they become the opposite: enormous waste that is difficult to recycle.

And China has plenty of both.

What exactly has happened? China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and five other government agencies have issued guidelines with a clear purpose: to accelerate the recycling of wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) equipment that has reached the end of its useful life. The state agencies released the guidelines in the summer of 2023 without providing much detail on the strategy the country will follow. Still, by early 2024, Beijing had already outlined some standards for recycling retired wind turbines.

Chinese authorities want to avoid the “massive decommissioning” that is on the horizon. They aim for a “fundamentally mature” recycling system for photovoltaic panels and wind turbines by the decade’s end.

And how will they do it? NDRC experts want to develop industry standards and rules detailing how to decommission, dismantle, and recycle renewable energy equipment. According to the South China Morning Post (SCMP), this will provide technical standards and guidelines for the photovoltaic and wind power industries to recycle their waste equipment.

One of the guidelines states that manufacturers must design equipment that's easy to dismantle and recycle. Furthermore, energy operators will also be responsible for dismantling the equipment once it has completed its function. Manufacturers must not agree not to dump waste in landfills. The NDRC suggests that factories must provide recycling services or partner with companies that do.

But how big is the challenge? We have some numbers to help us understand. According to Reuters, the experts cited by the Chinese authorities in their study predict that China will need to recycle about 1.5 million tons by 2030 and that the waste load will grow over time to about 20 million tons in a few decades by 2050.

These aren’t the only references we have. Greenpeace points out that by 2040, the country will have retired about 250 GW of solar and about 280 GW of wind capacity.

Is this just happening in China? No. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) states, “As the global PV market increases, so will the volume of decommissioned PV panels, and large amounts of annual waste are anticipated by the early 2030s.” Specifically, its engineers expect international accumulated PV installation waste to increase from 0.2 Mt in 2021 to 4 Mt in 2030, nearly 50 Mt in 2040, and more than 200 Mt in 2050. “G20 member countries will contribute most of the expected waste,” they conclude.

Do we have more data? Yes, we do. WindEurope also warns that wind turbines are already reaching the end of their operational life and that while the number of decommissioned blades has been low, it will likely increase in the coming years. “About 25,000 tons of blades per year will reach the end of their service life by 2025,” the organization estimates.

According to WindEurope, the burden will be hefty in Germany, Spain, and Denmark. By the end of the decade, it other European countries, such as Italy, France, and Portugal, to begin dismantling equipment, with the annual volume of discarded blades doubling to 52,000 tons by 2030.

Why is China taking action? Because of its ambitious renewable energy strategy. The Asian giant has set a goal of achieving zero net carbon emissions by 2060 and reducing its reliance on coal, an ambitious goal which it's promoting through renewable energy installations.

It plans to install 160 GW of wind and solar energy this fiscal year alone. According to the SCMP, China aims to have 1,200 GW of large-scale capacity by 2030, a goal it could achieve five years ahead of schedule. “Wind and solar first grew to scale in China in the early 2000s, and the average lifespan of panels and turbines is about 20 to 25 years,” Greenpeace East Asia campaigner Li Jiatong told the Chinese outlet.

Is it an easy challenge? China is one of many countries considering recycling wind turbines and blades. The industry itself has long been looking for efficient strategies to recycle blades, turbines, and solar panels, a complex task for which it has produced all kinds of strategies: processing the generators to extract rare metals, reusing the blades to make bridges and urban furniture, decomposing them, and even recovering some of their compounds to make jellybeans. All these actions aim to prevent turbines from becoming a problem instead of an environmental ally when they retire.

This article was written by Carlos Prego and originally published in Spanish on Xataka.

Images | Dept of Energy Solar Decathlon (Flickr) | IRENA

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