Circular economy in the power electronics industry: innovative design strategies for sustainable life cycle management.

Power electronics (PE) plays a crucial role in the expansion of renewable energy as improving the efficiency and productivity of this equipment is a key factor in increasing the viability, sustainability and competitiveness of renewable energy parks. Despite the attention paid to the development of renewable energy technologies, where PE plays a key role in their performance, there is a notable gap in research on the evaluation of PE and the infrastructure required for its deployment and management. Although there are numerous studies analysing the circular economy (CE) and life cycle analysis (CE-LCA) of renewable technologies, very few focus on assessing the circularity of PE, despite being a significant source of resource consumption, including critical raw materials, and high environmental impact. This study addresses this gap by investigating the application of circular design strategies to improve the sustainability of PE by reducing, slowing down, closing and regenerating resource loops. The methodology includes the classification of European Union eco-design criteria according to CE strategies and the assessment of their applicability in practice based on feedback from industry stakeholders. Based on the results, a critical evaluation of the implementation of different CE strategies in the PE sector is provided. These results highlight the urgent need to integrate closing and regeneration strategies in the design and development of PE to support the circularity and sustainability of the sector, minimising waste and the use of non-renewable materials. Furthermore, the regenerative circular strategy is the least addressed, underscoring the importance of expanding research in this area and developing new renewable materials that offer the same efficiency and performance as conventional materials.