Circular Business Models for the Solar Power Industry - Guide for Policy Makers

Solar power and electric vehicles (EV) are set to play a leading role in the achievement of the 2030 EU renewable targets and the commitment to carbon neutrality by 2050. Importantly, solar photovoltaics (PV), in combination with energy storage, also has the potential to significantly enhance European energy security, provide citizens and industry with competitive energy, and lead to the creation of thousands of jobs in manufacturing, installation, maintenance, and end-of-life management. While the expected rapid growth of the solar power sector over the coming decade will bring along various resource and waste management challenges, following a circular economy strategy can ensure that these will be handled in a proactive and future-proof manner. Furthermore, a circular economy approach will offer the European solar industry new business opportunities in the design and manufacturing of circular-ready products, as well as in the reuse, refurbishment and recycling of older solar panels.In response to the emerging resource and waste challenges of the solar power and battery sectors, the CIRCUSOL Innovation Action project (funded by the Horizon2020 programme of the European Commission) explored a number of innovative approaches and strategies towards circular business models in these two sectors. Specifically, the project focused on four circularity strategies: (1) reuse of discarded PV panels in second-life applications, and enabled through service-based business models; (2) repurposing of EVBs in second-life applications, specifically for stationary storage of solar power, and enabled through service-based business models; (3) ecodesign of PV panels; and (4) recycling of PV panels through innovative techniques.This guide for policy makers is based on the lessons learned in the CIRCUSOL project from 2018-2022. It compiles key findings from the project and seeks to sketch out pathways and strategies on the way forward. As such, the report aims to contribute to a debate across policy makers, industry representatives, experts and other stakeholders about a potential future policy and governance framework that could catalyze the transition towards circular and resource-efficient solar power and EV battery sectors in Europe

The Persistence of Technology

Repair, reuse and disposal are closely interlinked phenomena related to the service lives and persistence of technologies. When technical artefacts become old and worn out, decisions have to be taken: is it necessary, worthwhile or even possible to maintain and repair, reuse or dismantle them - or must they be discarded? These decisions depend on factors such as the availability of second-hand markets, repair infrastructures and dismantling or disposal facilities. In telling the stories of China's power grid, Canadian telephones, German automobiles and India's shipbreaking business, among others, the contributions in this volume highlight the persistence of technologies and show that maintenance and repair are not obsolete in modern industries and consumer societies

The Persistence of Technology: Histories of Repair, Reuse and Disposal

Repair, reuse and disposal are closely interlinked phenomena related to the service lives and persistence of technologies. When technical artefacts become old and worn out, decisions have to be taken: is it necessary, worthwhile or even possible to maintain and repair, reuse or dismantle them - or must they be discarded? These decisions depend on factors such as the availability of second-hand markets, repair infrastructures and dismantling or disposal facilities. In telling the stories of China's power grid, Canadian telephones, German automobiles and India's shipbreaking business, among others, the contributions in this volume highlight the persistence of technologies and show that maintenance and repair are not obsolete in modern industries and consumer societies

A Study of Mechanical Application in Demining

The GICHD Study of Mechanical Application in Demining is published after two years of research. The study puts the spotlight onto the use of machines as part of worldwide efforts to clear land mines. It looks at how machines work, the physical interaction between the machine tool, the ground struck, and the effects on the mines and UXO. The main roles for machines - potential for clearance, area reduction, and ground preparation - are explained, giving a description of each methodology, and illustrating these with actual case studies from the field. The study also deals with how machines can be utilized in a risk assessment and risk reduction process, provides basic guidelines for the protection of machine operators when working in a mined environment, and develops a way of measuring the cost-effectiveness of a machine via software provided. Among some of the main conclusions of the study are that some machines show the potential to be regarded as primary clearance systems, that the overall riddance of the mines problem could be greatly hastened by increased use of machines in area reduction, and that the use of magnets to reduce metal contamination as part of ground preparation can dramatically improve the efficiency of subsequent manual demining operations. The Study of Mechanical Application in Demining is a good starting point for anyone interested in learning about the potential for machines to improve and speed up the current, painfully slow process of mine clearance

A Study of Mechanical Application in Demining

The GICHD Study of Mechanical Application in Demining is published after two years of research. The study puts the spotlight onto the use of machines as part of worldwide efforts to clear land mines. It looks at how machines work, the physical interaction between the machine tool, the ground struck, and the effects on the mines and UXO. The main roles for machines - potential for clearance, area reduction, and ground preparation - are explained, giving a description of each methodology, and illustrating these with actual case studies from the field. The study also deals with how machines can be utilized in a risk assessment and risk reduction process, provides basic guidelines for the protection of machine operators when working in a mined environment, and develops a way of measuring the cost-effectiveness of a machine via software provided. Among some of the main conclusions of the study are that some machines show the potential to be regarded as primary clearance systems, that the overall riddance of the mines problem could be greatly hastened by increased use of machines in area reduction, and that the use of magnets to reduce metal contamination as part of ground preparation can dramatically improve the efficiency of subsequent manual demining operations. The Study of Mechanical Application in Demining is a good starting point for anyone interested in learning about the potential for machines to improve and speed up the current, painfully slow process of mine clearance

Durable Economies: Organizing the Material Foundations of Society

Leaking water infrastructures, heritage tourism, investments in artworks, failing electronics: Durability lies at the heart of a wide range of seemingly unrelated phenomena. In today's economies, which rest on ever-larger stocks of infrastructures, buildings, machinery and household goods, durable things are both a hugely significant source of wealth and a constant source of struggle. The contributors argue that a deeper engagement with durability is essential for reaching an understanding of how economies work; and for envisaging alternative economies built on principles of environmental stewardship and social justice. Placing durability at the core of economic analysis, this volume explores the work and tensions involved in the production and valuation of durability to outline a new agenda for more sustainable economies

Methodologies for Simplified Lifeline System Risk Assessments

Natural hazards are a growing risk across the globe. As regions have urbanized, single events impact greater proportions of the population, and the populations within those regions have become more dependent on infrastructure systems. Regional resilience has become closely tied to the performance of infrastructure. For a comprehensive risk assessment losses caused by lifeline outage must be considered alongside structural and nonstructural risks. Many well developed techniques quantify structural and nonstructural risk; however, there are insufficient procedures to determine the likelihood of lifeline outages. Including lifelines in seismic assessments will provide a comprehensive risk, improving a decision maker’s capacity to efficiently balance mitigation against the full spectrum of risks. An ideal lifeline risk assessment is infeasible due to the large geographic scale of lifeline systems and their system structure; these same characteristics also make them vulnerable to disruption in hazard events. Probabilistic methods provide solutions for their analysis, but many of the necessary analysis variables remain unknown. Continued research and increased collection of infrastructure data may improve the ability of advanced probabilistic methods to study and forecast performance of lifelines, but many inputs for a complete probabilistic model are likely to remain unknown. This thesis recognizes these barriers to assessment and proposes a methodology that uses consequences to simplify analysis of lifeline systems. Risk is often defined as the product of probability of failure and consequence. Many assessments study the probability of failure and then consider the consequence. This thesis proposes the opposite, studying consequence first. In a theoretical model where all information is available the difference in approach is irrelevant; the results are the same regardless of order. In the real world however, studying consequence first provides an opportunity to simplify the system assessment. The proposed methodology starts with stakeholders defining consequences that constitute ruin, and then the lifeline system is examined and simplified to components that can produce such consequences. Previously large and expansive systems can be greatly simplified and made more approachable systems to study. The simplified methodology does not result in a comprehensive risk assessment, rather it provides an abbreviated risk profile of catastrophic risk; risk that constitutes ruin. By providing an assessment of only catastrophic lifeline risk, the risk of greatest importance is measured, while smaller recoverable risk remains unknown. This methodology aligns itself with the principle of resilience, the ability to withstand shocks and rebound. Assessments can be used directly to consider mitigation options that directly address stakeholder resilience. Many of the same probabilistic issues remain, but by simplifying the process, abbreviated lifelines assessments are more feasible providing stakeholders with information to make decisions in an environment that currently is largely unknown

PROCEEDINGS 5th PLATE Conference

The 5th international PLATE conference (Product Lifetimes and the Environment) addressed product lifetimes in the context of sustainability. The PLATE conference, which has been running since 2015, has successfully been able to establish a solid network of researchers around its core theme. The topic has come to the forefront of current (political, scientific & societal) debates due to its interconnectedness with a number of recent prominent movements, such as the circular economy, eco-design and collaborative consumption. For the 2023 edition of the conference, we encouraged researchers to propose how to extend, widen or critically re-construct thematic sessions for the PLATE conference, and the paper call was constructed based on these proposals. In this 5th PLATE conference, we had 171 paper presentations and 238 participants from 14 different countries. Beside of paper sessions we organized workshops and REPAIR exhibitions

Regulation and Innovation in the Recycling Industry

Abstract not availableJRC.J-Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (Seville