Improving the planet’s carbon dioxide emissions rate requires a multifaceted approach. You can recycle your trash and get an electric car to help the environment, but the electricity you use every day also plays a role in global warming.

Learn more about how sustainable materials are improving renewable energy infrastructure to understand the ways it can support the environment beyond creating carbon-neutral electricity.

What Is Renewable Energy Infrastructure?

Renewable energy infrastructure is the physical equipment used to generate, store and distribute electricity created from renewable methods. It can power residential and commercial buildings as long as there’s an accessible energy source.

The key to understanding it is breaking down the various types of renewable energy and the materials used for its infrastructure.

How Sustainable Materials Support Renewable Energy Infrastructure

Extracting electricity from carbon-neutral sources doesn’t automatically make the energy environmentally friendly. The infrastructure must implement sustainable advancements in materials and manufacturing to ensure it remains a better source of electricity than fossil fuels.

Read more about those advancements to uncover how renewable energy is getting even greener.

Sustainable Materials in Wind Energy

Wind turbines generate electricity whether it’s sunny or not. Their construction can also include materials that harm the planet. The turbine towers require steel and concrete before the internal rotors and blades can start spinning. The internal parts may utilize planet-friendly materials like fiberglass or carbon fiber, but the turbines still rely on limited resources like metals.

Researchers are advancing this step in manufacturing renewable energy by developing carbon fiber blades that give each turbine a longer life span. They don’t need as many materials and are more durable, so they’d improve the carbon footprint of wind turbines from multiple perspectives.

Some companies are also replacing steel with wood while building their turbines. Depending on where the wood comes from, it could make turbines greener. Brands that partner with organizations like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) are supporting the protection and responsible management of over 500 million acres of forests, communicating the importance of environmental stewardship now and into the future.

Improvements in Solar Energy

Solar panels and solar-thermal power (CSP) systems use photovoltaic cells and mirrors to generate electricity from sunshine. Although they’re not creating carbon footprints in doing so, the materials used to make those essential forms of energy infrastructure can have an environmental footprint.

The panels specifically require materials like crystalline silicon. It’s an essential material in making the panels work, but an energy-intensive manufacturing process is necessary to generate the silicon. Swapping that material with planet-friendly alternatives would decrease each panel’s overall environmental impact. Researchers recently discovered how to make perovskites more effective at making electricity while maintaining their lower manufacturing costs.

Cadmium telluride modules combine the two elements to make solar cells, too. The elements are more eco-friendly than sourcing metals from the planet. The environmental footprint of this renewable energy infrastructure will be much lower if more solar panels take advantage of accessible materials other than raw metals.

Every solar power advancement makes it usable in other forms too. While solar panels are becoming a more popular way to power homes and businesses, photovoltaic technology even powers things like headphones because it’s easy to fit in small gadgets. As options like cadmium telluride become more accessible, additional solar-powered tools will become available for everyday use beyond panels on a roof.

Eco-Friendly Solutions in Hydropower

Experts estimate that 27% of renewable electricity in the U.S. comes from hydropower. It uses natural water systems to create energy as the water flows through internal turbines within a dam. Steel is the primary resource used to make those turbines. They have to withstand intense water pressure with minimal long-term corrosion.

Surface treatments and 3D printing are assisting in the fight to make hydropower more sustainable. The treatments apply coating layers to the steel to reduce corrosion and cavitation. If the steel lasts longer with these treatments, manufacturers don’t have to pull resources from the environment to continually make replacement turbine parts.

Research also shows that 3D-printed parts within a hydropower turbine can minimize the use of steel, as well. The parts would reinforce compounds within each turbine to strengthen it without relying on metals. Given how steel manufacturing adds to water, air and soil pollution, minimizing its necessity for hydropower plants would make them better for the planet in the long term.

Industry-Wide Energy Storage Improvements

You might have heard people worry about keeping their lights on if their home relies on solar panels or wind turbines. What happens when it’s cloudy or less windy? Although those concerns aren’t a threat to sustainable energy, energy storage is a foundational way to ensure there’s no sudden drop in electricity manufacturing due to environmental changes.

Energy storage is possible through different types of batteries and supercapacitors. Batteries hold onto any kind of electricity and can release it back into local power grids whenever necessary. Supercapacitors come in all sizes and retain more energy than traditional batteries.

The materials needed to make batteries harm the environment. Manufacturers have to mine for minerals to make lithium-ion batteries, which creates 40% of the carbon emissions for each battery’s environmental footprint. Alternatively, supercapacitors use carbon electrode materials as double-layer storage solutions without needing limited natural resources.

Relying more on supercapacitors while battery technology minimizes the need for minerals could make energy storage more eco-friendly in the short term. Researchers will have to continue developing new battery chemistry before batteries are an option that doesn’t harm the planet.

Tech Advancements for Future Sustainable Energy Equipment

As industry leaders work toward greener materials for sustainable energy creation and storage, other advancements are already underway. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms are improving grid efficiency to maximize how much electricity equipment can produce. Analyzing data in real time also minimizes waste because the algorithms can spot when parts within each machine aren’t working properly.

Some tech is even purifying biogas more effectively. Biogas comes from natural waste in the environment but can be tricky to transform into a liquid powerful enough to fill a vehicle’s gas tank. Technology related to refrigeration systems is making biogas cleaner while amplifying its ability to power vehicles. It’s another way people can become less dependent on fossil fuels.

Anticipate a Greener Future for Renewable Energy

Renewable energy sources have greater long-term viability because people are always seeking new ways to optimize them. Finding eco-friendly alternatives to harmful materials and utilizing tech advancements are just a few ways people are propelling green electricity into the future.