How the Reuse Market Can Solve Supply Chain Delays

While not the world oldest profession, the reuse of products is a close second, dating back to when a caveman picked up a spear after his partner was eaten by a lion. Today, it is estimated that 45 percent of industries depend on it.

Some examples are the auto industry relying on scrapyards for parts, heavy construction equipment, HVAC systems in buildings, utilities, plumbing, marine, military, aviation, and telecommunications — all rely on finding new, used, parts, or equipment to run smoothly.  Surplus equipment can extend the life of networks, avoid costly upgrades and help make a cost prohibitive project happen.

With a proven track record in so many industries, why would renewable energy be any different?  It’s not!!

Below are examples of how the Reuse market can help you with new Projects, Operations & Maintenance for Solar, Wind, and BESS Projects. Some of these may seem obvious, and some may surprise you.

Transformers for wind, solar and battery storage: With a current lead time of 2-5 years, a unit can be available from a cancelled project, or a used unit can be remanufactured. Bushings and other parts many be available.

Switchgear: With long lead-times, switchgear can be remanufactured or reconfigured

Solar panels: Older panels are not compatible with currently production panels due to differences in Dimensions and wattage. New surplus or remanufactured used panels can be substituted to help extend the life of solar farms.

Parts: Circuit breakers, cables, connectors, and wire are all widely reused.

Test equipment: Off lease equipment for all types of test equipment is can be particularly valuable.

Inverters: Spare inverters and spare parts often can be found and extend the life of a solar farm.

BESS – battery storage: Complete systems at a discount can make or break a project from happening, with spare parts, cannibalization, and rebuilding of battery packs can extend the life of a storage project.

Wind: Turbines, nacelles, blades, meters, batteries, rebuilt gear boxes, and miscellaneous parts are often available, as well as recycling services for the blades and other components.

Decommissioning: This includes easily overlooked pallets, waste containers, or recycling services.

Storage containers: Sizes from 20-foot to 40-foot containers are excellent for reuse.

Construction equipment: Forklifts, excavators, and many other vehicles, lifts and tools can help defray construction costs.

Green industry: Besides being an economically friendly industry to users, it is also environmentally kind, as reusing products that have already been built is an excellent carbon footprint and a boost to community approval. 

Where to look: Suppliers and services

It is important to know that there are different types of suppliers.

1. Warehouses – or boneyards (they store equipment)
2. Those with the technical ability to test, repair or cannibalize equipment for parts

3. Sourcing agents – Brokers

The key is to work with a sourcing agent that knows thousands of companies and what equipment or services they specialize in. Good sourcing agents can save time as they are skilled at locating equipment and handling the necessary logistics. They become an extremely helpful partner in locating hard to find equipment or parts, so you can focus your business. Many suppliers often know as much or more than the factory about technical details, and are more helpful in supplying the information.

What about the sellers?

You may think that this industry is one sided with the buyers making out like a bandit and the sellers being ripped off. Not even close! Sellers often recover anywhere from 10-50 percent of their original purchase price. They also stop paying storage fees, in some cases receiving money instead of having to pay to haul away the equipment. 

How to avoid scams

Trust is an important element for all parties involved and leads to win/win tractions. References are helpful to develop trust, contracts, equipment inspections onsite or those that can be safely achieved with an online video. Professional sourcing agents are trained to catch the scams artists. Though pictures help in the search, scammers are pros at using AI to fake images. Calling the main phone number for a company helps to catch crooks as they tend to use fake email addresses and attach their phone number. Never be pressured into to a “the money needs to be wired today” deal. Most transactions take 2+ days, and larger ones can be over a month. Humans have an amazing skill to sense when something is not right, so trust your instincts and take your time until you feel comfortable. If the deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Steve Feinberg started his career in 1980, and by 1984 was established in supplying surplus parts to the computer industry. Telecom followed in 1995, Airport Ground Support Equipment never took off in 2001 (pun intended), went back to Telecom in 2008, and on to Renewable energy in 2021. Steve has helped companies directly and indirectly save billions of dollars through the supply of hard-to find-parts that extended the life of their networks. With 5 dogs, considers himself a professional dog walker, mooning lighting as the president of Bluewater Battery.

Bluewater Battery | www.bluewaterbattery.com