Wind and Solar Power Plant End-of-Life Equipment: Prospects for Management in Ukraine

The Ukrainian renewable energy sector has demonstrated a significant increase in its renewable power capacity, especially for solar and wind power plants. Decommissioning the end-of-life equipment in Ukraine has not yet taken place, but it is only a matter of time. With this in mind, this paper assesses the quantities and the market values of the materials that could potentially be recovered from used solar and wind power plants, and it estimates the impact of their decommissioning on employment in Ukraine. It has been estimated that approximately 8.9 GW of solar power plants, and 3.6 GW of wind power plants, will be decommissioned from 2044 to 2059, and that the cost of the raw materials recovered could reach EUR 421.4 million and EUR 124.6 million in 2021 prices, respectively, compared to the decommissioning costs of EUR 240.1 million and EUR 49.1 million, respectively. Decommissioning renewable power plants will require the creation of new jobs, including 11.6 thousand in the solar industry, and 2.8 thousand in the wind sector. It is essential to amend the legislation in Ukraine, particularly Directive 2012/19/EU, to introduce the principle of the extended producer responsibility to ensure the efficient recycling of renewable power plant end-of-life equipment in Ukraine in the future.