Oil & Energy
‘Renewable Energy Waste Crisis Is Much Worse Than You Think’
Waste disposal is not a popular topic of discussion in the media when it comes to renewable energy. Most of the coverage that solar and wind power is getting is strongly positive, with a focus on falling costs and rising efficiencies, as well as government plans for huge increases in installed capacity. Yet problems tend to lurk and wait to spring up. Now, the waste problem is springing up.
TheInternational Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimated in 2016 that unless we made significant changes to our treatment of solar panels, they could add up to 78 million tons of waste. The IRENA did not phrase it this way. It said that “recycling or repurposing solar PV panels at the end of their roughly 30-year lifetime can unlock an estimated stock of 78 million tonnes of raw materials and other valuable components globally by 2050.”
The thing is that most panels do not live to see their 30th birthday, as an article in the Harvard Business Review from June pointed out. Solar waste, it said, is growing much faster than it should have, theoretically. This is because another thing that you wouldn’t see widely publicised is solar panels beginto lose efficiency from the moment they are installed.
Meanwhile, new, more efficient panels are being developed. Even if the loss of efficiency is minuscule, at an average 0.5 percent, that figure is off the top of a typical efficiency rate of less than 30 percent (light-to-electricity conversion), so when offered a higher efficiency installation, many residential solar owners would consider it. The authors of the article, dubbed The Dark Side of Solar Power, point to the continuous improvements in solar panel technology as a reason for shorter actual lives for residential panels. They note that thanks to these improvements, both in cost and efficiency, consumers are a lot less likely to wait for their panels to turn 30 before they replace them. As a result, these early replacements could lead to 50 times more solar panel waste than IRENA had forecast.
It’s worth noting that IRENA’s forecast for the 78-million-ton opportunity from solar panel waste was made in 2016. A lot of things have changed over the past five years, including the rate of growth in solar panel installations. Unfortunately, what hasn’t changed a lot is the economics of recycling solar panels.
Grist reported recently that, according to researchers and recycling industry insiders, the cost of recycling a solar panel varies between $12 and $25. Meanwhile, the income from recovering certain elements from it comes in at about $3. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, recycling a solar panel costs between $20 and $30, while sending it to a landfill costs $1-2. And while the EU has put in place recycling mandates, the U.S. has no such mandates on a national level.
This massive difference in the cost of recycling versus the cost of dumping panels at landfills hints at an unpleasant truth that we are seeing in the EU already. There are recycling mandates there. The countries with the highest solar capacity pay the most for their electricity. This could, of course, be a coincidence, but that’s quite unlikely: recycling costs money, and somebody has to foot that bill.
It is this bill that busts the myth of the cheap solar power that can fuel the whole world because the sun is there and shines for free. This is true. But once you add the costs of recycling to the total cost of solar energy, as the Harvard Business Review authors note, the cost of solar jumps four times.
The future, in the absence of quick action, looks bleak, according to the researchers who penned the HBR article.
“If we plot future installations according to a logistic growth curve capped at 700 GW by 2050 (NREL’s estimated ceiling for the U.S. residential market) alongside the early replacement curve, we see the volume of waste surpassing that of new installations by the year 2031,” Atalay Atasu, Serasu Duran, and Luk N. Van Wassenhove wrote.
“By 2035, discarded panels would outweigh new units sold by 2.56 times. In turn, this would catapult the LCOE (levelised cost of energy, a measure of the overall cost of an energy-producing asset over its lifetime) to four times the current projection. The economics of solar so bright-seeming from the vantage point of 2021 would darken quickly as the industry sinks under the weight of its own trash.”
This sounds bad enough. It’s even worse because there are only a handful of companies in the U.S. that recycle solar panels. But there is also wind turbine blade waste that is building up, and while, unlike solar panels, it does not contain toxic materials, the sheer size of the blades makes it a significant waste problem. Wind turbine blades are not recyclable yet, and tons of them are coming to landfills over the next 20 years; more than 720,000 tons in the U.S. alone.
“Because there are so few options for recycling wind turbine blades currently, the vast majority of those that are no longer able to be used are either stored in various places or taken to landfill,” says CEO, and co-founder of CruxOCM, Vicki Knott.
“While the waste stream represents only a tiny portion of municipal solid waste, it’s clearly not an ideal scenario. As wind turbines are being replaced, there’s certainly a need for more creative recycling solutions for used blades,” Knott also said.
It all sounds like a waste nightmare scenario, and it pretty much is.
While many residential solar panels will live out their lives, many others will not. But this is only the beginning of the problem. Recycling costs must be brought down and capacity built before the current wave of utility-scale solar farm additions subsides because anything done later would be playing catch-up with little chance to win.
Slav writes for Oilprice.com
By: Irina Slav
Traders have not been this bearish on oil in months or so bullish on United States natural gas in years.
The latest data on money managers’ positioning in the WTI and Brent crude and U.S. natural gas futures showed two contrasting trends—speculators are betting that oil prices would remain low or go even lower while increasing the bets that natural gas prices would continue marching higher.
So far this year, geopolitical and supply and demand factors have been increasingly bearish for the oil price outlook and increasingly bullish for natural gas prices.
In the oil market, hedge funds and other portfolio managers have been slashing their bullish bets since the end of January, when the U.S. sanctions on Russia’s oil trade were the primary bullish driver of managed money to bet on a tightening market.
With U.S. President, Donald Trump, now in office, the sentiment has quickly soured amid the president’s insistence on lower oil prices, his efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine, and – most of all – the enormous uncertainty about on-and-off tariffs and tariff threats and their potential impact on the American economy.
As a result, market participants are preparing for lower oil prices, even amid expectations of declining oil supply from Iran and Venezuela due to President Trump’s hawkish policy toward these OPEC producers.
Speaking of OPEC, the wider OPEC+ group has just said it would begin increasing supply as of April, adding further downward pressure on prices.
Faced with all these bearish drivers, money managers have been reducing their bullish bets on crude oil futures, with the U.S. WTI Crude hitting the lowest net long position – the difference between bullish and bearish bets – in 15 years at the end of February.
In the week to March 4, the latest reporting week with data released on March 7, speculators bought WTI amid a major selloff in all other commodities except for U.S. natural gas.
The net long in WTI rebounded from the 15-year low, but it wasn’t because the market suddenly started betting on higher prices going forward. The rise in WTI buying and the net long was the result of short covering in the U.S. crude futures contract.
In Brent, hedge funds cut their bullish-only bets in the week to March 4 for the biggest decline in longs since July 2024.
Unlike in crude oil, money managers have become increasingly bullish on U.S. natural gas after inventories dipped this winter to below the five-year average as demand surged in the coldest winter for six years.
The net long in natural gas further swelled in the week to March 4, as the number of new bullish bets was four times higher than the new short positions.
“Natural gas continues to benefit from rising demand, both domestically in the US and towards exports via LNG,” Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, said, commenting on the latest Commitment of Traders report.
At the start of the winter heating season in November, U.S. natural gas inventories were higher than average for the time of the year as America entered the season with stocks at their highest level since 2016.
These stocks, however, were quickly depleted during the coldest winter for six years, with demand for space heating and power generation soaring. A month before the end of the winter heating season, U.S. natural gas inventories have now slumped to below the five-year average and well below the levels from the same time in 2024, at the end of a mild winter.
The lower inventories and the higher demand – both for domestic consumption and LNG exports – have pushed prices higher, encouraging producers to boost gas output this year. Traders bet that prices will go even higher as demand from LNG plants is set to accelerate with the ramp-up of new U.S. export plants.
Paraskova writes for Oilprice.com.
By: Tsvetana Paraskova
Renaissance Africa Energy Holdings says it has successfully completed the acquisition of 100 percent equity holding in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC).
Spokesperson of the company, Tony Okonedo, who disclosed this in a Press Release, Last Thursday, said Renaissance has completed all processes for the full transfer of ownership of SPDC to the consortium, adding that it will now operate as Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited.
“Renaissance Africa Energy Holdings today announced that it has successfully completed the landmark transaction between itself and Shell for the acquisition of the entire (100%) equity holding in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC).
“This follows the signing of a sale and purchase agreement with Shell in January 2024 and obtaining all regulatory approvals required for the transaction. Going forward, SPDC will be renamed as ‘Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited.
“Going forward, SPDC will be renamed as ‘Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited’.
“Renaissance Africa Energy Holdings is a consortium consisting of four successful Nigerian independent oil and gas companies: ND Western Limited, Aradel Holdings Plc. FIRST Exploration and Petroleum Development Company Limited and the Waltersmith Group, each with considerable operations experience in the Niger Delta, and Petrolin, an international energy company with global trading experience and a pan African outlook”, the statement reads.
Speaking on the acquisition, the Managing Director/CEO, Renaissance Africa Energy Holding,Tony Attah, said Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited has a vision to be the leading oil and gas producer in Africa and to help the continent achieve energy security.
Attah expressed gratitude to the Federal Government for its support and pledged the company’s commitment to the Petroleum Industry Act.
“We are extremely proud to have completed this strategic acquisition. The Renaissance vision is to be ‘Africa’s leading oil and gas company, enabling energy security and industrialization in a sustainable manner’.
“We and our shareholder companies are therefore pleased that the Federal Government has given the green light for this milestone acquisition in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act”, he said.
The CEO acknowledged the contributions of Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources, the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in facilitating the deal.
He said, “we extend our appreciation to the Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources, the CEO of the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), and the CEO of Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) for their foresight and belief, paving the way for the rapid development of Nigeria’s vast oil and gas resources as strategic accelerator for the country’s industrial development”.
The Statement further revealed that Renaissance partner companies collectively have an asset base of more than $3 billion and currently safely produce approximately 100,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) from 12 oil mining leases and operate two functioning modular refineries in Nigeria’s Niger Delta.
The Federal Government has cautioned oil-rich communities against infighting and disruption of oil production, saying it could hinder their access to the Host Community Development Fund.
Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, made the appeal while speaking at the KEFFESO Stakeholders Forum, in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
Lokpobiri noted that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) was enacted to bring stability to the oil sector and address longstanding grievances about underdevelopment in host communities.
He lamented, however, that internal disputes among stakeholders have made it difficult for these communities to access and utilize the funds meant for their development.
Lokpobiri insisted that host communities must overcome internal conflicts that hinder their access to the funds.
“This KEFFESO Stakeholders Forum is to see how host communities can maximize the benefits from the Host Communities Trust Funds as prescribed by the PIA.
“If oil production is disrupted, everyone loses — the Federal Government, oil companies, and the host communities themselves. That is why host communities must collaborate with the government and oil companies to ensure smooth operations” Lokpobiri stated.
The Minister called on Host Community Development Trusts (HCDTs) in the Niger Delta to effectively utilize the 3% operational funds allocated to them under the PIA 2021 to drive sustainable development.
He further called that oil-producing communities should take ownership of the oil and gas facilities within their domains and work with relevant stakeholders to ensure sustainable benefits.
“As stakeholders who have their respective stakes in oil and gas operations in the country, we should work together to ensure that we maximize the benefits of oil and gas.”
The minister also emphasized the global push for cleaner energy, warning that the relevance of fossil fuels depends on their extraction and marketability.
“Don’t forget there is a global campaign against the continuation of production of fossil fuel.
“Fossil fuel will never go away. Fossil fuel will not have any value unless you bring it out of the ground or from the sea to the market, that is why we need this collaboration,” he said.
In his remarks, the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Omotsola Ogbe, reaffirmed the board’s commitment to leveraging the provisions of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act.
Represented by the Board’s Director of Legal Services, Naboth Onyesoh, Ogbe noted that the NCDMB’s Community Content Guidelines were designed to ensure sustained community engagement as local content is prioritized throughout the oil and gas value chain.
Ogbe praised the KEFFESO Host Community Development Trust for its efforts in ensuring that oil revenues benefit local communities.
Also speaking, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, First E & P, Ademola Adeyemi-Bero, described the KEFFESO Stakeholders Forum as a crucial platform for discussing and strategizing solutions to the challenges facing marginalized communities in the Niger Delta.
He reiterated the company’s commitment to fostering meaningful and sustainable development in the region.
The forum, themed “Envisioning Sustainable Community Development in Niger Delta Host Communities: Identifying Challenges and Actualising The PIA Paradigm Shift,” brought together key stakeholders to discuss strategies for maximising the benefits of the Petroleum Industry Act(PIA).