Last year, Texas surpassed California in utility-scale solar energy and has long produced more wind energy than any other state. Soon, Texas will lead in battery storage deployment as well. Because of this, Texas innovators are poised to blaze a cost-effective path for recycling or reuse of these technologies when it is time to retire or replace equipment.
When solar panels, wind turbines, lithium-ion batteries, or nuclear fuel must be replaced, their economic usefulness hasn’t ceased in many cases. More and more, the opposite is true.
One company in Odessa, Solarcycle, is as innovative as it is integral to the local economy. By recycling the vast majority of valuable materials from solar panels, Solarcycle generates new jobs and boosts economic opportunities. With massive growth in the solar industry, others are looking to set up shop in Texas.
Since 2020, the utility-scale solar industry in Texas has grown more than fivefold. However, because projects are built to operate for 30 years, the market for large-scale recycling of solar components in Texas is a ways off. Still, recycling and reuse opportunities are growing, and the solar industry is working to ensure panels find a new home, are recycled, or are properly disposed of at the end of their life.
This trend is true for wind energy, too. Pitbull Shredding Solutions is a Texas company that has created innovative solutions for wind turbine blades. Through their partnership with REGEN Fiber, the recycling process diverts blades from landfills and harnesses their strength to increase the durability of building materials. Pitbull’s Lubbock facility can process more than 10,000 blades annually, and the company aims to expand.
Innovators are also delivering promising ways to recycle lithium-ion batteries, which power electric vehicles and other popular consumer electronics. These batteries have a longer life expectancy than ordinary car batteries, and the usefulness and value of their components endure long after the recycling process.
Amermin, for example, is an Austin-based company with oil and gas roots that has now diversified into recovering electronic waste and other industrial material streams. In Plano, Toyota Motor North America is expanding its battery recycling network through a collaboration with one of the nation’s biggest battery recyclers: Cirba Solutions.
Texas is also home to four nuclear reactors. Spent nuclear fuel is another opportunity for clean energy recycling and new American companies are finding new uses for legacy radioactive material. Material slated for disposal will instead be used to create clean energy. The company Zeno Power is pioneering this path.
While these advancements in clean energy recycling are exciting, even more innovation is needed to deploy even more technologies like these at scale.
Some might use this fact as an excuse to dismiss clean energy and focus solely on traditional power sources. That would be a massive mistake, though, as a market-driven energy expansion is underway, and Texas would be foolish to forfeit its leading role. The economic benefits of dominating all markets for clean energy production and recycling are substantial. Setting the pace provides huge economic benefits, and Texas can lead both the country and the entire world.
Fossil fuels will continue to have a vital role in this market-driven energy expansion and Texas should lead the country in every kind of energy production. That means new opportunities in the cleaner extraction of fossil fuels, as well as the development and deployment of cost-effective carbon capture and storage technologies for fossil fuels.
Texas’ dominance in wind and solar energy production should make every Texan proud. So should our efforts in clean energy recycling and reuse. We are turning end-of-service solar panels, wind turbine blades, lithium batteries, and spent nuclear fuel into economic opportunities.
Source; https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/clean-energy-recycling-texas-19747048.php?cmpid=gsa-chron-result
