With legislative momentum around clean power generation and net-zero emissions policies rapidly building, the U.S. is seeing rapid increases in installed wind and solar capacity each year.
At the same time, older generations of renewables are facing a new challenge: obsolescence. The first utility-scale wind and solar projects in the U.S. were developed in the early 1980s. Now, as these and other early-generation renewable projects reach the end of their useful lives, and as new projects are being developed, owners, developers, and other stakeholders must decide whether to decommission, repower, or redevelop them.
Accordingly, state and local governments have been working to develop public policy and practices to address the eventual disposition of obsolete solar panels, wind turbines, and other clean energy generation technologies. To date, no single regulatory framework has been developed that comprehensively addresses…
