The industry’s current circular capacity is woefully unprepared for the deluge of waste that is likely to come.

Economic incentives are rapidly aligning to encourage customers to trade their existing panels for newer, cheaper, more efficient models. In an industry where circularity solutions such as recycling remain woefully inadequate, the sheer volume of discarded panels will soon pose a risk of existentially damaging proportions.

To be sure, this is not the story one gets from official industry and government sources. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)’s official projections assert that “large amounts of annual waste are anticipated by the early 2030s” and could total 78 million tonnes by the year 2050. That’s a staggering amount, undoubtedly. But with so many years to prepare, it describes a billion-dollar opportunity for recapture of valuable materials rather than a dire threat. The threat is hidden by the fact that IRENA’s predictions are premised upon customers keeping their panels in place for the entirety of their 30-year life cycle. They do not account for the possibility of widespread early replacement.

Related: China’s coal production is set to climb for the sixth year in a row, reaching a new record [4.4 billion tons]. If you’re doing anything to reduce your emissions, you’ve just been offset… forever.

New York Times;

These should be great times to be in the wind energy business, especially in Europe. Governments here have long promoted offshore wind projects, and those efforts have accelerated since Russia started cutting natural gas shipments in its war against Ukraine.

“We need clean, we need cheaper and we need homegrown power,” Ursula von der Leyen, the European Union president, said in August.

But Europe’s wind turbine makers, the crown jewels of the region’s green energy industry and a source of manufacturing expertise, are reporting losses and laying off workers. Their problems stem partly from lingering supply chain issues and competition from Chinese manufacturers, and the issues could ultimately hinder Europe’s, and even the world’s, ambitions to quickly develop emission-free energy sources.

This month, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, a Madrid-based company that is the premier maker of offshore wind turbines, reported an annual loss of 940 million euros ($965 million). The company has announced a cost-cutting program that is likely to lead to 2,900 job losses, or nearly 11 percent of its work force.

Vestas Wind Systems, the world’s largest maker of turbines, recently reported a loss of 147 million euros (about $151 million) for the third quarter.

General Electric, a large maker of wind turbines in the United States and Europe, has also struggled in its clean energy businesses. The company said last month that its renewable energy unit was likely to record $2 billion in losses this year.

Several problems are battering the industry, including rising costs for materials and shipping, as well as logistics snags, some of them a legacy of the pandemic. As a result, prices agreed on earlier for turbines, which cost millions of dollars apiece and can add up to hundreds of billions for large offshore wind farms, can result in huge losses for the manufacturers when they are delivered.

“Every time we sell a turbine, we lose 8 percent,” Henrik Andersen, the chief executive of Vestas, said in an interview.

Clearly, this demands more subsidies.