“What are we going to do with the waste from photovoltaic plants or wind turbines?” former president Felipe González asked this Monday.
Large renewable energy parks already have a legal obligation to dismantle solar panels and windmills at the end of their useful life, and in fact the sector already recycles 86% of the materials used to produce solar energy.
For now, it is done on a small scale, because the waste is still very little.
However, several companies are already preparing pioneering projects - some promoted by European Next Generation funds - to revalue these materials at an industrial level when the dismantling of the first large renewable parks installed in the country begins, which they hope to reuse up to 70% of the materials. of the wind turbines.
In addition, they are looking for new uses for the most complex materials: mill blades and silicon for plates.
“Solar panels usually last 25 to 30 years, and even more.
That is why in Spain there is still not much waste of this type, except for some panels that have broken or were very old,” explains Pedro Fresco, director of the Valencian Association of the Energy Sector (Avaesen).
“Meanwhile, wind turbines have a useful life of 20 to 25 years, so starting in 2025 we will begin to see the dismantling of the first wind farms that were installed,” he continues.
"In addition, when a company installs a renewable park, it has to provide a guarantee to guarantee final dismantling, even if the entity disappears."
Disassembly of the components of a wind turbine by RenerCycle.
CINTIA SARRIA (RenerCycle)
According to the Wind Business Association (AEE), the sector's association, there are some 22,000 operational wind turbines in Spain, of which 7,400 have already been in use for more than two decades, and 1,350 are over 25 years old, so we must start thinking in its dismantling.
They are composed of 80% metal, making reuse relatively simple, and a concrete base, a material that does not generate major complications.
The only problem is the blades, made of composites and fiberglass, which until now were taken to landfills.
The Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE) of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition has distributed 14 million of Next Generation European funds in six new blade recycling projects that will be underway, in principle, within two years.
“These six projects have a combined waste treatment capacity of 18,000 tons per year, and plan to recover 66% to 70% of the materials.
Until 2030, Spain will generate about 10,000 tons per year of blades and other elements of wind turbines, which will even contribute to recycling in other European markets,” explains Joan Groizard, general director of the IDAE.
Disassembly of an Iberdrola wind turbine.Iberdrola
One of them is that of Acciona and RenerCycle in Navarra ―called Waste2Fiber―.
“It will be the first facility in Spain to use pioneering technology with a thermal treatment to recycle the composite materials present in the blades.
This technology will allow these materials to be transformed into raw materials that can be used again,” says an Acciona spokesperson.
Meanwhile, Javier Villanueva, director of RenerCycle, which brings together 10 companies in the wind sector, adds: “The largest part of the wind turbines is the tower, which is already cut into pieces and melted.
The second part is the blades, and there are several processes to work on them, like the plant we prepared with Acciona.
The third is the nacelle or nacelle, the space that houses the engine, where there are hundreds of metal elements and about 300 liters of industrial oil.
At RenerCycle we are going to launch another plant, which will be the first in Spain, to dismantle and revalue the nacelles.”
Recreation of the appearance of the future Waste2Fiber wind turbine recycling plant in Navarra.
Another of the funded projects is Energyloop, from Iberdrola and FCC.
“The dismantling of wind farms is an opportunity.
Our future plant in Navarra will be able to recycle shovels industrially, which can then be used in sectors such as energy, aerospace, automobiles, textiles, chemicals, construction...", says Álvaro Portollano, head of industrial ventures at Iberdrola.
While they arrive, there are some small but very curious initiatives.
Acciona has launched a pilot project to recycle wind blades in the construction of solar panel support structures in Extremadura;
The same company created sports shoes whose sole includes materials from those same blades.
Meanwhile, Life Refibre transforms the blades into glass fibers that, once added to the asphalt, make the roads 30% stronger.
New life for solar panels
Later will come the dismantling of the solar parks, generally more recent.
According to the Spanish Photovoltaic Union, photovoltaic panels are managed as electronic waste, just like any household appliance, and have high recycling rates.
A silicon photovoltaic module (90% of the market) is composed of glass (78%), aluminum (10%), plastics (7%) and metals (semiconductors).
Solar panels from the Valencian company Silicon Valen.Silicon Valen
“Photovoltaic panels are mainly composed of polycrystalline silicon cells, a layer of tempered glass, and conductive material to join the cells and prevent overheating,” explains Víctor Cloquell, partner of Silicon Valen, a factory that is being built in Valencia and plans to begin operating at the end of the year producing about 320,000 solar panels per year (about 200 MW at the beginning, although it plans to reach 600 MW later).
“90% of the materials can be easily recycled and they also last 25 to 30 years, much longer than most products,” he adds.
“Aluminum can be recycled, and also has a lot of value, while glass is also simple.
That alone is 80% of the weight of the panel,” agrees Pedro Fresco, from Avaesen.
“Plastics can be sent to a specific recycler.
Where there are the most problems is with the silicon sheet, that is, the solar cell, which although it represents little of the total weight, has great purity.
There we would need to improve recycling,” he continues.
Gabriel García, director of Recyclia - which brings together the main entities in the sector - points out that currently about 3,000 tons of solar panels are managed per year, in plants that also recover other electronic waste: one in Aragon, another in Valencia, another in Albacete and another in Extremadura.
“In these entities, the grinding is done, the separation into parts, and then materials such as silicon, glass or aluminum are obtained.
The recycling rate is 86%,” he says.
In addition, there are two other projects underway to demonstrate that renewable energy is not just energy in the sector.
A Veolia plant in Rousset (France) goes even further and has recycling rates of 95%.
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