Eliminating Waste in the Renewable Energy Supply Chain

The renewable energy industry is booming. While that’s an important shift for the future of the environment, a few problems have started to emerge as this sector has grown. Most notably, while solar and wind power themselves are low-waste energy sources, their supply chains are far from waste-free.

Minimizing supply chain waste and emissions is a critical goal for many industries. However, it’s all the more pressing in a field where sustainability is the most important factor.

The Problem with Renewable Energy Supply Chain Waste

Like many electronics, solar panels and wind turbines rely on mined materials. As the clean energy market expands, demand for many of these resources could surge by 400% in the coming decades. Some—like lithium and graphite—could jump as high as 4,000%.

All this resource consumption raises questions about mining’s ecological impact. Worsening the issue is the fact that renewable technologies have a limited life span. Over time, the infrastructure will need replacement, requiring additional mining and contributing to the already monumental e-waste epidemic.

The sourcing, manufacturing and end-of-life processing of renewable energy technologies must improve if this sector is to become truly sustainable. Such a shift will require drastic changes, but there are opportunities on the horizon. Some organizations have already made important strides in enabling a less wasteful renewable supply chain.

Recycling-Friendly Design

Eliminating renewable energy supply chain waste starts with designing more recyclable hardware. One of the reasons why e-waste is such an issue is because current devices make it difficult to extract and reuse critical materials. Accounting for this in the design stage could ease the burden on downstream recycling centers.

More than 85% of solar panel materials are already recyclable with today’s methods. Consequently, a few redesigns could yield dramatic improvements in how much downstream supply chain partners could reclaim to use in new products.

One option is to make components easier to separate through physical or gentle chemical means. Alternatively, manufacturers could redesign equipment to require fewer critical minerals in the first place. This method wouldn’t necessarily improve recyclability, but it would reduce mining-related emissions and toxic leakage.

Responsible Sourcing

Renewable supply chains should also consider where they source their materials from. Even at low volumes, mining rare earth minerals can be wasteful and destructive. A worrying 97% of mining waste in the U.S. goes untreated or unrecycled.

Manufacturers must ensure their resources come from more careful, reliable sources. On-site renewables and electrification can lower mining emissions, while automation minimizes errors and ensures compliance with environmental regulations. Supply chains can implement blockchain tracking solutions to verify these qualities and promote greater transparency.

Of course, the renewable energy sector should also consider sources outside of conventional mines. Partnering with other electronics producers to reclaim and reuse their e-waste is the best path forward. The more material businesses can source from existing products, the less they’ll need to worry about mining-related ecological impacts.

Low-Waste Manufacturing

Once raw materials reach production facilities, process improvements can ensure more resources lead to actual value. Precision manufacturing will reduce waste from both excess energy withdrawals and physical material loss.

Automation is one of the most important steps in this stage of the supply chain. Robotic solutions are less likely to make mistakes and can work in tighter parameters, leading to less scrap. 3D printing is particularly valuable, as it uses less material to begin with as an additive rather than a subtractive process. Studies have already proved how 3D printing reduces waste in solar cell production.

Manufacturers should also capitalize on artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). These Industry 4.0 technologies can provide insights into potential inefficiencies to address or adjust processes in real time to minimize energy consumption.

End-of-Life Recycling

In a conventional supply chain, most optimizations would end here. However, renewable technologies must address their end-of-life processes, too. Solar panels last for only a few decades on average, so the industry needs a way to reuse materials to avoid a cycle of destructive mining and e-waste.

Thankfully, much research has focused on how to improve renewable technology recycling methods. Some facilities have recovered 95% of critical materials from retired solar panels. As more waste processing organizations achieve such standards, they could provide recycled cobalt, lithium and other metals to solar panel and wind turbine manufacturers.

Other projects have focused on recovering resources from historical mines. Early research suggests new technologies can extract up to 50 needed minerals from mine sites that are no longer operating, providing low-emissions, low-waste supplies to supplement recycled e-waste.

Supply Chain Collaboration

All of these strategies require close collaboration with other supply chain partners. A circular economy is only possible when manufacturers, suppliers, downstream partners, logistics providers and end users can all work together. Such cooperation requires improved supply chain transparency.

Many organizations are already moving in this direction. A promising 67% of supply chain leaders have implemented digital dashboards for end-to-end transparency. While these investments are usually intended to reduce disruption, they can also promote better communication with other stakeholders to build a circular economy.

Other technologies like blockchain or IoT tracking may also be necessary to achieve full visibility. Such investment will be expensive, but industry-wide collaboration and a slow, targeted approach can ease the financial burden while maximizing the benefits.

Solar and wind technology manufacturers may need to look outside their own industries. Companies producing other types of electronics may have e-waste that includes critical materials like lithium and cobalt that renewables need. Partnering with such outside sources will provide additional supplies of needed resources while lowering waste in another sector.

Renewable Technologies Need Sustainable Supply Chains

The energy industry must switch to renewable sources of power to avoid the worst effects of climate change. At the same time, if this transition does not include broader supply chain restructuring, the environmental benefits will be limited. Attention to waste and third-party carbon footprints is critical.

Building a circular economy is complicated but not impossible. Many of today’s existing technologies are enough to get started in this important endeavor. Understanding the need for change is the first step toward long-term sustainability.