India Will Abolish All Single-Use Plastic by 2022

Solar is already in the vanguard of the energy transition, and can similarly lead the world’s transition to a circular economy. Decommissioned PV modules could total 1 million tons of waste in the U.S. by 2030. Yet there are virtually no incentives or regulations to promote its recycling or reuse. In fact, says NREL, most current regulations in the U.S. define it as solid waste, making it difficult to introduce it to a recycling value chain. In some instances the waste, defined as hazardous, is prohibited from reuse. Incentives are so poor that companies that do recover in bulk leave behind high-value materials such as silver, copper, and silicon. The main reason is that, at the national level, statutes or regulations that explicitly address PV module recycling simply don’t exist yet. Fortunately, state and industry models are being created.

Phoenix has established itself as a major market for cloud computing, and nearly every major hyperscale platform and wholesale data center developer has lined up land for future capacity in Greater Phoenix. The region is positioned for continued data center expansion, and the pace and location of that growth will be guided by deployment trends for large customers, especially regarding how they position their capacity and availability zones. This launches the Data Center Frontier Special Report series exploring the Phoenix market.