Recycling ‘end-of-life’ solar panels, wind turbines, is about to be climate tech’s big waste business
Solarcycle CTO Pablo Dias and COO Rob Vinje show a solar panel laminate after it’s been cleanly separated from the glass to investors and partners. The laminate is where most of the value is contained in a panel, like silver, silicon, and copper.
Solarcycle
The growing importance of wind and solar energy to the U.S. power grid, and the rise of electric vehicles, are all key to the nation’s growing need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, lower carbon emissions and mitigate climate change.
But at the same time, these burgeoning renewable energy industries will soon generate tons of waste as millions of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels, wind turbines and lithium-ion EV batteries reach the end of their respective lifecycles.
As the saying goes, though, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Anticipating the pileup of exhausted clean-energy components — and wanting to proactively avoid past sins committed by not responsibly cleaning up after decommissioned coal mines, oil wells and power plants — a number of innovative startups are striving to create a sustainable, and lucrative, circular economy to recover, recycle and reuse the core components of climate tech innovation.
Wind and solar energy combined to generate 13.6% of utility-scale electricity last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), and those numbers will undoubtedly rise as renewable energy continues to scale up. Some leading utilities across the nation are far ahead of that pace already.
Meanwhile, sales of all-electric vehicles rose to 5.8% of the total 13.8 million vehicles Americans purchased in 2022, up from 3.2% in 2021. And with the Environmental Protection Agency’s newly proposed tailpipe emissions limits and power plant rules, EV sales could capture a 67% market share by 2032 and more utilities be forced to accelerate their power generation transition.
Solarcycle is a prime example of the companies looking to solve this climate tech waste problem of the future. Launched last year in Oakland, California, it has since constructed a recycling facility in Odessa, Texas, where it extracts 95% of the materials from end-of-life solar panels and reintroduces them into the supply chain. It sells recovered silver and copper on commodity markets and glass, silicon and aluminum to panel manufacturers and solar farm operators.
“Solar is becoming the dominant form of power generation,” Solarcycle CEO Suvi Sharma said, citing an EIA report stating that 54% of new utility-scale electric-generating capacity in the U.S. this year will come from solar. “But with that comes a new set of challenges and opportunities. We have done a phenomenal job making solar efficient and cost-effective, but really have not done anything yet on making it circular and dealing with the end-of-life [panels].”
Keeping solar panels out of landfills
The average lifespan of a solar panel is about 25 to 30 years, and there are more than 500 million already installed across the country, Sharma said, ranging from a dozen on a residential home’s rooftop to thousands in a commercial solar farm. With solar capacity now rising an average of 21% annually, tens of millions more panels will be going up — and coming down. Between 2030 and 2060, roughly 9.8 million metric tons of solar panel waste are expected to accumulate, according to a 2019 study published in Renewable Energy.
Currently, about 90% of end-of-life or defective solar panels end up in landfills, largely because it costs far less to dump them than to recycle them. “We see that gap closing over the next five to 10 years significantly,” Sharma said, “through a combination of recycling becoming more cost-effective and landfilling costs only increasing.”
Indeed, the market for recycled solar panel materials is expected to grow exponentially over the next several years. A report by research firm Rystad Energy stated they’ll be worth more than $2.7 billion in 2030, up from only $170 million last year, and accelerate to around $80 billion by 2050. The Department of Energy’s National Renewable Laboratory (NREL) found that with modest government support, recycled materials can meet 30%-50% of solar manufacturing needs in the U.S. by 2040.
Both the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provide tax credits and funding for domestic manufacturing of solar panels and components, as well as research into new solar technologies. Those provisions are intended to cut into China’s dominant position in the global solar panel supply chain, which exceeds 80% today, according to a recent report from the International Energy Agency.
One recipient of this federal funding is First Solar, the largest solar panel manufacturer in the U.S. Founded in 1999 in Tempe, Arizona, the company has production facilities in Ohio and another under construction in Alabama. It has been awarded $7.3 million in research funds to develop a new residential rooftop panel that is more efficient than current silicon or thin-film modules.
First Solar has maintained an in-house recycling program since 2005, according to an email from chief product officer Pat Buehler. “We recognized that integrating circularity into our operations was necessary to scale the business in a sustainable way,” he wrote. But rather than extracting metals and glass from retired panels and manufacturing scrap, “our recycling process provides closed-loop semiconductor recovery for use in new modules,” he added.
Massive wind turbines, blades are almost all recyclable
Retired wind turbines present another recycling challenge, as well as business opportunities. The U.S. wind energy industry started erecting turbines in the early 1980s and has been steadily growing since. The American Clean Power Association estimates that today there are nearly 72,000 utility-scale turbines installed nationwide — all but seven of them land-based — generating 10.2% of the country’s electricity.
Although the industry stalled over the past two years, due to supply chain snags, inflation and rising costs, turbine manufacturers and wind farm developers are optimistic that the tide has turned, especially given the subsidies and tax credits for green energy projects in the IRA and the Biden administration’s pledge to jumpstart the nascent offshore wind sector.
The lifespan of a wind turbine is around 20 years, and most decommissioned ones have joined retired solar panels in landfills. However, practically everything comprising a turbine is recyclable, from the steel tower to the composite blades, typically 170 feet long, though the latest models exceed 350 feet.
Between 3,000 and 9,000 blades will be retired each year for the next five years in the U.S., and then the number will increase to between 10,000 and 20,000 until 2040, according to a 2021 study by NREL. By 2050, 235,000 blades will be decommissioned, translating to a cumulative mass of 2.2 million metric tons — or more than 60,627 fully loaded tractor trailers.
How the circular renewable energy economy works
Players in the circular economy are determined not to let all that waste go to waste.
Knoxville-based Carbon Rivers, founded in 2019, has developed technology to shred not only turbine blades but also discarded composite materials from the automotive, construction and marine industries and convert them through a pyrolysis process into reclaimed glass fiber. “It can be used for next-generation manufacturing of turbine blades, marine vessels, composite concrete and auto parts,” said chief strategy officer David Morgan, adding that the process also harvests renewable oil and synthetic gas for reuse.
While processing the shredded materials is fairly straightforward, transporting massive turbine blades and other composites over long distances by rail and truck is more complicated. “Logistics is far and away the most expensive part of this entire process,” Morgan said.
In addition to existing facilities in Tennessee and Texas, Carbon Rivers plans to build sites in Florida, Pennsylvania and Idaho over the next three years, strategically located near wind farms and other feedstock sources. “We want to build another five facilities in the U.K. and Europe, then get to the South American and Asian markets next,” he said.
In the spirit of corporate sustainability — specifically not wanting their blades piling up in landfills — wind turbine manufacturers themselves are contracting with recycling partners. In December 2020, General Electric’s Renewable Energy unit signed a multi-year agreement with Boston-based Veolia North America to recycle decommissioned blades from land-based GE turbines in the U.S.
Veolia North America opened up a recycling plant in Missouri in 2020, where it has processed about 2,600 blades to date, according to Julie Angulo, senior vice president, technical and performance. “We are seeing the first wave of blades that are 10 to 12 years old, but we know that number is going to go up year-on-year,” she said.
Using a process known as kiln co-processing, Veolia reconstitutes shredded blades and other composite materials into a fuel it then sells to cement manufacturers as a replacement for coal, sand and clay. The process reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 27% and consumption of water by 13% in cement production.
“Cement manufacturers want to walk away from coal for carbon emissions reasons,” Angulo said. “This is a good substitute, so they’re good partners for us.”
GE’s wind turbine competitors are devising ways to make the next generation of blades inherently more recyclable. Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy has begun producing fully recyclable blades for both its land-based and offshore wind turbines and has said it plans to make all of its turbines fully recyclable by 2040. Vestas Wind Systems has committed to producing zero-waste wind turbines by 2040, though it has not yet introduced such a version. In February, Vestas introduced a new solution that renders epoxy-based turbine blades to be broken down and recycled.
Electric vehicle lithium-ion battery scrap
Lithium-ion batteries have been in use since the early 1990s, at first powering laptops, cell phones and other consumer electronics, and for the past couple of decades EVs and energy storage systems. Recycling of their valuable innards — lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper — is focused on EVs, especially as automakers ramp up production, including building battery gigafactories. But today’s EV batteries have a lifespan of 10-20 years, or 100,000-200,000 miles, so for the time being, recyclers are primarily processing battery manufacturers’ scrap.
Toronto-based Li-Cycle, launched in 2016, has developed a two-step technology that breaks down batteries and scrap to inert materials and then shreds them, using a hydrometallurgy process, to produce minerals that are sold back into the general manufacturing supply chain. To avoid high transportation costs for shipping feedstock from various sites, Li-Cycle has geographically interspersed four facilities — in Alabama, Arizona, New York and Ontario — where it’s deconstructed. It is building a massive facility in Rochester, New York, where the materials will be processed.
“We’re on track to start commissioning the Rochester [facility] at the end of this year,” said Li-Cycle’s co-founder and CEO Ajay Kochhlar. Construction has been funded by a $375 loan from the Department of Energy (DOE), he said, adding that since the company went public, it’s also raised about $1 billion in private deals.
A different approach to battery recycling is underway at Redwood Materials, founded outside of Reno, Nevada, in 2017 by JB Straubel, the former chief technology officer and co-founder of Tesla. Redwood also uses hydrometallurgy to break down batteries and scrap, but produces anode copper foil and cathode-active materials for making new EV batteries. Because the feedstock is not yet plentiful enough, the nickel and lithium in its cathode products will only be about 30% from recycled sources, with the remainder coming from newly mined metals.
“We’re aiming to produce 100 GWh/year of cathode-active materials and anode foil for one million EVs by 2025,” Redwood said in an email statement. “By 2030, our goal is to scale to 500 GWh/year of materials, which would enable enough batteries to power five million EVs.”
Besides its Nevada facility, Redwood has broken ground on a second one in Charleston, South Carolina. The privately held company said it has raised more than $1 billion, and in February it received a conditional commitment from the DOE for a $2-billion loan from the DOE as part of the IRA. Last year Redwood struck a multi-billion dollar deal with Tesla’s battery supplier Panasonic, and it’s also inked partnerships with Volkswagen Group of America, Toyota, Ford and Volvo.
Ascend Elements, headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts, utilizes hydrometallurgy technology to extract cathode-active material mostly from battery manufacturing scrap, but also spent lithium-ion batteries. Its processing facility is strategically located in Covington, Georgia, a state that has attracted EV battery makers, including SK Group in nearby Commerce, as well as EV maker Rivian, near Rutledge, and Hyundai, which is building an EV factory outside of Savannah.
Last October, Ascend began construction on a second recycling facility, in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, using federal dollars earmarked for green energy projects. “We have received two grant awards from the [DOE] under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that totaled around $480 million,” said CEO Mike O’Kronley. Such federal investments, he said, “incentivizes infrastructure that needs to be built in the U.S., because around 96% of all cathode materials are made in East Asia, in particular China.”
As the nation continues to build out a multi-billion-dollar renewable energy supply chain around solar, wind and EVs, simultaneously establishing a circular economy to recover, recycle and reuse end-of-life components from those industries is essential in the overarching goal of battling climate change.
“It’s important to make sure we keep in mind the context of these emerging technologies and understand their full lifecycle,” said Garvin Heath, a senior energy sustainability analyst at NREL. “The circular economy provides a lot of opportunities to these industries to be as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible at a relatively early phase of their growth.”
The EV4 will sadly not arrive in the US as expected, but Kia said it’s still planning on launching another EV that’s expected to be an even bigger hit.
Kia confirms EV4 delay, says another EV is still US-bound
The EV4, Kia’s first electric sedan, was expected to launch in the US within the next few months, but that will no longer be the case.
Kia has indefinitely delayed the launch of the EV4 in the US due to policy changes under the Trump administration.
The loss of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit and added tariffs on Korean imports have forced Kia, like many others, to adjust their US lineup.
According to Kia America’s marketing boss, Russel Wager, the EV4 is only a small part of the broader tariff-related impacts the Korean automaker is facing. Wager told Car and Driver on the sidelines of the LA Auto Show that the changes will likely impact other vehicles and prices.
When asked for specifics about why the EV4 is being pushed back, Wager said, “Can you give me the answer of when the tariffs are going to be resolved in Mexico, Canada, and Seoul? If you give me that answer, I’ll be as specific as possible.”
While the EV4 is delayed indefinitely, Wager suggested bringing the EV3 to the US, Kia’s compact SUV, is still part of the plan.
The Kia EV3 is already one of the most popular EVs in Europe and the UK’s best-selling retail electric car this year. Given the growing demand for smaller SUVs, the EV3 is expected to be an even bigger hit with US buyers than the EV4.
When it will launch in the US or how much it will cost remains up in the air until Kia gets a better idea of market conditions.
Kia’s EV sales plunged after the federal tax credit expired at the end of September. Sales of the EV6 and EV9 fell by 71% and 66% last month compared to October 2024.
According to Wager, the automaker won’t really know what demand looks like until February or March 2026, since the loss of the $7,500 credit likely pulled buyers forward.
Kia is still ready to launch the EV4 in the US, but that’s only if the tariff situation stabilizes. Earlier this month, the US and South Korea agreed to reduce tariffs on imports from 25% to 15%.
“At that point in time we look at it and say, are we at 25 [percent], are we at 15—and then we can build our business case,” Wager said, adding, “It was originally designed and engineered when the tariffs were zero percent.”
The electric pickup that Kia announced just a few months ago may never make it to the US. Wager pointed to Ford halting F-150 Lightning production and reports that it could be scrapped altogether.
In the meantime, Kia is heavily discounting its current electric vehicles, offering a $10,000 customer cash bonus on every model. Or, you can opt for 0% financing for 72 months plus an extra $2,500 bonus cash. Kia’s sister company, Hyundai, is also offering generous discounts with IONIQ 5 leases starting at just $189 per month.
Interested in a test drive? We can help you get started. You can use our links below to find Kia and
Hyundai models in your area.
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A caravan of Chevy Silverado EVs will take the nearly 3,000-mile holiday trip across the US, lighting Christmas trees, surprising onlookers with light shows, and powering up festivities.
Chevy Silverado EVs gear up for a 3,000-mile trip
Chevy is celebrating the holidays with its fifth “Holiday Card to America,” but this year, the festivities will be brought to life.
Created in collaboration with Anomaly and Park Pictures, this season’s Holiday Card puts the spotlight on the ones that help bring the family together while keeping the traditions going: Moms.
The story follows an empty-nest couple through their holiday tradition, a trip to the family cottage in their 1987
Chevrolet Suburban.
The couple reminisces on past trips, with two kids and the family dog in the backseat, which are now empty. The 60-second ad will air on Thursday during the NFL football games on FOX and on the Chevrolet YouTube channel.
Starting December 1, a caravan of Chevy Silverado EVs will travel 2,987 miles across the US from San Diego to Detroit, with stops in Dallas, Nashville, and Atlanta.
The Chevy Silverado EV will light up events in each city, from illuminating the holiday tree to surprise light shows, to festive events where families can roast s’mores over a campfire while holiday caroling from local choirs plays in the background.
Chevy said the nearly 3,000-mile holiday trip is a testament to the electric pickup’s long range, fast charging, and mobile power capabilities.
The Chevy Silverado EV provides an impressive driving range of up to 494 miles, can tow up to 12,500 lbs, and offers up to 10.2 kW of offboard power with up to 11 outlets.
The 2026 Chevy Silverado EV is available in three trims: Custom, LT, or a new Trail Boss edition, starting at $55,895.
With the 2026 models arriving, Chevy is offering 0% APR financing on all 2025 model year electric vehicles, including the Silverado EV, Blazer EV, and Equinox EV.
Interested in a test drive? We can help you get started. You can use our links below to find Chevy Silverado, Blazer, and Equinox EVs at a dealer near you.
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If you’re a parent of a teenager, there’s a decent chance you’ve heard the phrase “Can I get a Sur Ron?” sometime in the last year. Before you panic‑Google it or head to Amazon to see what one of these bikes costs, there are some important things you should know about this class of electric two-wheelers that have become all the rage with teenagers these days.
First, let’s clear something up: “Sur Ron” is technically one of many brands that makes these styles of bikes, but it’s become a catchall term – kind of like Kleenex. People often say “Sur Ron” when what they usually mean is any lightweight electric dirtbike with mountain‑bike styling and motorcycle performance.
The brand Sur Ron may have kick-started the category, but now there are plenty of similar machines: Talaria, Tuttio, Rawrr, ERidePro, Segway X260, and plenty of smaller new brands popping up constantly. For the purposes of this topic, just look at whatever model your kid is asking for. If it looks like the pictures you’re seeing here in this article – dirtbike frame, no pedals, or offers 40+ mph speeds – then regardless of brand, you’re dealing with a “Sur Ron‑style” electric motorcycle.
And that brings us to the key reality parents need to know: A Sur Ron is not an electric bicycle. It is a light electric motorcycle.
Kids might not realize that when they’re begging for one after their friends got one. Many of these bikes are marketed with vaguely bicycle‑ish visuals, and influencers often ride them on public roads or on bike paths. But legally, practically, and mechanically, these machines are nowhere near the same thing as an electric bicycle – and that’s the core issue parents need to understand before clicking “Buy.”
What is a Sur Ron, really?
Unlike a street-legal Class 1, 2, or 3 electric bicycle, a Sur Ron‑class bike:
- Has no spinning bicycle pedals
- Has a throttle-only drive system
- Usually tops out at around 40–50 mph (64-80 km/h)
- Is built like a lightweight motorcycle, not a bicycle
- Usually cannot legally be ridden on public roads, bike lanes, parks, or neighborhoods
There are a few exceptions to the street-legal issue, with brands such as NIU admirably homologating their designs for street-legal use. But this only further drives home the point, since such homologated models still require a motorcycle license to ride legally on public roads.
The point is, if it doesn’t have pedals and it goes over 28 mph, it’s not an electric bicycle almost anywhere in the US. That’s not my opinion – that’s how federal and state definitions work. Once you remove pedals and exceed those limits, you’ve crossed into motor vehicle territory.
Note: Part of the confusion stems from the vague term “e-bike”, which is often used to lump together everything from e-scooters and small electric bicycles to full-sized electric motorcycles. “E-bike” is morphing into a catchall term, but the legal classification of “electric bicycle” is what matters, and that legal denotation differentiates larger, non street-legal motorbikes from a street-legal two-wheeler.
Why do so many kids want one?
A huge part of the Sur Ron explosion has come from YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram videos showing teens doing wheelies, ripping around neighborhoods, and treating these machines like high-powered scooters. Kids see the cool factor, the speed, the off-road styling – and many assume they’re basically “super e-bikes.”
Well-known influencers regularly ride these types of bikes illegally on public roads and in bicycle lanes, often at speeds of up to 50 mph (80 km/h).
The marketing doesn’t help, either. Some retailers list these rides under the “E-Bike” category, even though they’re nowhere near legal electric bicycle specifications. Many come with easily defeatable speed limiters (more on that in a moment) to try to sneak by with questionable speed and power limits.
So in many cases, kids aren’t intentionally asking for a motorcycle. They simply don’t know the difference.
However, police are aware of the distinction, and they are increasingly confiscating these bikes when they are ridden illegally on public streets or bike lanes, especially by teenagers who are unfamiliar with the rules of the road.
The most important question for you: How do they plan to use it?
If your teen is asking for one of these motorbikes, consider asking them how they plan to use the vehicle before you decide what to buy.
If their answer is anything like…
- “Ride around the neighborhood”
- “Commute to school”
- “Go on the bike path”
- “Ride with my friends in town”
…then you can stop right there. A Sur Ron is not appropriate, safe, or legal for that type of riding.
What they need is a Class 1, 2, or 3 e‑bike – something with pedals, legal speed limits, and the ability to ride in bike lanes. There’s a healthy debate about which class is best for teens, but all three are at least street-legal and much safer than a Sur Ron or other light electric motorcycle for street and bike lane riding.
On the other hand, if your teen’s answer to why they want a Sur Ron is something like…
- “Trail riding”
- “Off-roading”
- “Learning motorcycle skills”
- “Riding on private land”
…then a Sur Ron‑class bike can be a great tool. With proper supervision, protective gear, and an appropriate place to ride, these bikes are fantastic learning platforms – and a ton of fun! They’re lightweight, don’t require clutch control, and have smooth throttles that make them more approachable than gasoline-powered dirt bikes. In fact, I’d say that they’re one of the best ways to learn motorcycle and dirt bike skills. Just be sure to get your kid geared up with the proper safety equipment, like a good helmet, gloves, and protective clothing. I really like a company called Beyond Riders (I have no affiliation) and I wear their armored jackets and pants on my full-size motorcycles – that’s how good they are.
Ask yourself honestly: Would you buy your kid a small motorcycle?
Just because it’s electric doesn’t make it any less powerful. If you wouldn’t buy your kid a motorcycle, then it doesn’t make sense to get them a Sur Ron. It’s just a motorcycle that you don’t fill up with gasoline.
Many of these models may claim to be limited to 20 mph (32 km/h), but they almost all have an easily bypassed speed limiter – often a single wire designed to be cut – that allows their top speed to be increased to around 40-50 mph. Electrek’s own publisher has talked before in our e-bike podcast about how his family’s Talaria seems to mysteriously have its speed limiter wire repeatedly cut after his teenager uses it.
These aren’t toys, and they’re not bicycles. They require the same level of responsibility, gear, and supervision as a gas dirt bike.
And depending on where you live, there can be serious legal consequences if your kid rides one on the street: tickets, fines, or worse, liability in the event of a crash.
So what should parents buy instead?
It may appear to some that this article or my views are anti-Sur Ron, but in fact, it’s the opposite. These are great machines, and it’s awesome that they exist. But like many things in life, context is important. These aren’t commuter tools (unless they’re homologated for street-legal riding and the rider has a motorcycle lesson). These are trail bikes for off-road riding.
If your kid’s goal is everyday riding – school commutes, local cruising, bike-path adventures – then you want a proper electric bicycle. Not a Sur Ron.
Look for reputable Class 1, Class 2 or Class 3 e-bikes from brands that make real electric bicycles (things that look like pedal-able bicycles with batteries). Brands like Lectric eBikes, Ride1Up, Aventon, Trek, Rad Power Bikes (while they last), and others are all great, affordable options for families searching for a teenager’s first e-bike. That is by no means an exhaustive list, but they are some of the most popular among younger, budget-minded riders looking for something safe and legal.
These brands all offer models with real pedals, legal speed limits, safer handling, and that won’t get your kid in trouble for riding where motorcycles don’t belong.
Final thoughts: Be real, be safe, and match the bike to the mission
It’s awesome that your kid is excited about electric mobility. That’s something worth supporting. But the right choice depends entirely on how – and where – they plan to ride.
A Sur Ron‑class bike is an amazing off-road machine, and a fantastic training motorcycle. But if the plan is to ride around town, go to school, or stick to bike paths, then it’s absolutely the wrong choice.
There’s no shame in saying “no” to the motorcycle and “yes” to a legal e-bike.
As with all things electric on two wheels, the key is to pick the right tool for the job. And despite the hype, a Sur Ron is not a bicycle. It’s a motorcycle. A fun, capable, impressive motorcycle – but one that needs to be used in the right place, with the right gear, and for the right reasons.
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