Waste from Europe's renewable energy transition set to grow

摘要

New renewable energy infrastructure in Europe will create high volumes of complex waste streams that pose both a challenge and an opportunity, a European Environment Agency (EEA) report said. Emerging waste streams: opportunities and challenges of the clean-energy transition from a circular economy perspective found that, if the European Green Deal to transform the bloc's economy into a resource-efficient, climate-neutral model is to be achieved, the EU power sector must be 'completely redesigned to accommodate the fastest emerging technologies', such as solar and wind power. This transition will require significant material resources and will generate substantial amounts of new waste - such as solar cells, and wind turbine and batten' components - because of fast-paced development and obsolescence.