Department of Energy Prize for Renewable Parts USA

Circular economy pioneers named amongst 20 winners in the American Made Challenges "Re-X Before Recycling" prize.

HOUSTON - July 9, 2024 - PRLog -- A wind industry business who have recently established a workshop in Houston, Texas have been recognised for their circular economy-based business model through the Department of Energy's American Made Challenges platform.

Renewable Parts is a business that helps wind turbine operators to cut waste and carbon through offering viable, scalable alternatives to new component parts and they do this by offering refurbished components at set prices, from stock and regardless of the condition of the return cores.

This unique business model has proven to be extremely effective in the UK and Europe and the business is now working to replicate that success in the USA.

While the business has started to scale up some refurbishment solutions for clients in the US it is still very early days but this early recognition is a welcome boost in helping to spread the message that refurbished and remanufactured goods can be considered as a viable alternative to new.

Today, the U.S. manufacturing sector predominantly follows a linear model of production in which raw materials are sourced, manufactured into products and parts, used, and discarded—informally called the take-make-waste model. To fully decarbonize the U.S. economy, the country must create new, circular supply chains to keep materials in use beyond a single life cycle. While recycling plays an important role in this circular economy, approaches that extend the lifetimes of goods could save more energy and emissions over time than recycling alone.

The three-stage Re-X Before Recycling Prize will award up to $5.6 million in federal funding and technical assistance from U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories to support competitors' innovations to unlock new or expanded supply chains that can reintegrate end-of-use products into the economy.

The purpose of this prize is to advance innovative new designs that could keep materials in use beyond a single life cycle, increase the recovery and reuse rate of end-of-use products to reduce the embodied energy and carbon of manufactured goods, strengthen regional manufacturing supply chains, increase U.S. security of supply, create jobs, and reduce environmental burdens related to extraction, landfilling, and incineration.

Circular supply chains are complex with diverse value propositions and waste stream compositions that vary by region and over time. The prize is designed to support competitors to overcome these difficulties and help the country transition from a linear to a more circular economy.

In Phase 1, teams were challenged to identify a new or expanded Re-X supply chain opportunity and the associated community benefits of that opportunity, then create a plan to develop the innovation needed to realize the opportunity, and this is where Renewable Parts has found success.

The winners of Phase 1 each received $50,000 in cash and up to $5,000 worth of consultation from a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory to identify analysis that may bring insights into the impact and benefits of their proposed supply chain and innovation.

About Renewable Parts

Renewable Parts is a pioneering organisation proactively working to de-carbonise the wind industry since 2011.  They recirculate components for turbines that would normally be sent to scrap and landfill, and they help to maximise turbine uptime by reducing lead times through their experienced supply chain network. Read the full story at https://www.renewable-parts.com