Renewable electricity is an essential part of saving the climate. At the same time, the growing power transition is starting to introduce some environmental concerns of its own. Material demands are rising, highlighting the need for a circular economy within the energy industry.
What Is a Circular Economy?
The circular economy is a system based on reuse, longevity, and regeneration instead of consumption and disposal. In the current model, people extract new resources to turn into disposable products, making the economy a straight line. Circularity connects the ends of that line to turn end-of-life products back into usable materials to minimize waste.
This new way of making things is important for a few reasons. First, it reduces the strain on scarce resources. Similarly, it lowers the related environmental impact. Raw material extraction and processing accounts for 50% of all global emissions and 90% of water stress and habitat loss.
A circular economy also keeps non-biodegradable items out of landfills. Because it also emphasizes keeping existing products in use for longer periods, it can also reduce pollution and emissions from manufacturing and disposal.
How Circularity Fits Into the Energy Sector
The idea of a circular economy normally comes up in conversations about manufacturing and consumer goods. However, it’s also crucial to the energy industry, especially as the world tries to move toward zero-emissions electricity. Solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles (EVs) and electrical infrastructure all have a common problem — they rely on critical metals and minerals.
Consequently, as they become more common, they could double or even quadruple demand for these materials by 2040. Extracting those resources on such a scale could have a huge impact on the environment. Demand for steel and aluminum likewise demands attention. While the raw materials necessary for these alloys are more abundant, turning them into usable metal typically generates considerable greenhouse gas emissions.
A circular economy would let the green energy sector grow without increasing this strain on the environment. Lowering the consumption of key metals and minerals will mean fewer emissions and less habitat loss from mining. There’s significant room for improvement here, too — 34 needed metals have recycling rates below 1% in the U.S.
How the Energy Industry Can Foster a Circular Economy
Creating a circular economy in energy won’t be easy, but it is possible. The industry can foster circularity by embracing a few key practices.
Reduce Energy Needs
The first step in making a circular energy economy feasible is to lower power demand. When the world needs less power, it becomes easier to support the electrical supply through reuse and recycling.
Thankfully, such changes are possible through several relatively simple fixes. Insulating metal buildings can reduce energy consumption by stopping heating and cooling losses through the walls, which are high conductors of heat. Similarly, passive heating and cooling systems in homes or smart devices can minimize power waste to lower electrical demand.
Other reduction steps will be more complicated. Refining EV batteries to enable longer ranges will take research and investment, but it will help reduce vehicle emissions while using less electricity from recharging. Building less computationally intensive artificial intelligence (AI) models is another such complex but crucial measure.
Grow the Reverse Supply Chain
Next, the companies making power infrastructure need to focus on improving their recycling practices. A circular economy is only possible when manufacturers can extract enough material from old products to create new ones. Getting all those resources requires a stronger reverse supply chain.
The reverse supply chain refers to getting end-of-life items from end users back to the production facility. Energy equipment producers will need to collaborate with their customers and recycling providers to do that. Instead of ending relationships when someone buys or installs solar panels, they need to offer customers a way to return the panels once they’re no longer useful.
Returning used resources directly to the manufacturer to make the same products is called closed-loop recycling, and it’s far more efficient than the conventional approach. Closed-loop lithium battery recycling can reduce environmental impacts by 54% compared to a traditional, open-loop system.
Research Recycling-Friendly Redesigns
The circular economy will also likely require a different approach to how electric equipment uses resources. Current battery technologies and similar infrastructure are hard to pull materials from after use or rely on metals that aren’t easily recyclable. Redesigns may be necessary to address this barrier.
Over 85% of solar cell materials are readily recyclable, but extracting them from an existing panel without harming them is difficult. One possible solution is dissolvable sealants so facilities can quickly remove the unrecyclable parts without damaging the rest. Another is to introduce layers acting as zippers to enable fast, damage-free physical disassembly.
Designing products to last longer will also help. A longer useful life span means less demand for new solar panels, batteries or turbines in the first place. That way, material consumption drops, and organizations buy time to research better recycling methods or invest in the reverse supply chain.
The World Needs a Circular Economy
Circularity is key to ensuring the electricity transition does more good than harm. The world needs clean power, but this shift has to be possible without increasing the consumption of scarce or sensitive resources. When the industry can foster a reuse-centric economic model, it can maximize the benefits for the environment.
About the author: Jane works as an environmental and energy writer. She is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Environment.co.
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