14 ENERGY EFFICIENCY www.prbx.com Issue 3 2024 Power Electronics Europe www.power-mag.com Ecodesign, Reuse, Repair, Prolonging Lifetime and New Technology – Is it the new paradox? Patrick Le Fèvre, PRBX, Chief Marketing and Communication Officer The European Ecodesign is well known for energy related issues such as energy efficiency and standby energy consumption, and many detailed articles have been written on this topic. As one of the key elements of the European Green Deal strategy there is another, less wellknown aspect to Ecodesign that’s about reducing waste and granting consumers the ‘Right to Repair’ thus prolonging the lifetime of equipment. Clearly the time is right for ‘Right to Repair’ to be addressed, initially for consumer products that are the visible part of the iceberg, forming part of the much bigger problem of changing our way of working and dealing with the issue of prolonging the lifetime of equipment whilst developing a circular economy. Many business segments will be highly influenced by the new European Directives and will need to figure out new ways to deal with obsolescence. So how will the power supply industry embrace this change and how could it contribute to prolonging the lifetime of equipments and to reduce waste? New EU rules to make sustainable products the norm. As announced in the EU Circular Economy Action Plan, the Commission has proposed new rules to make almost all physical goods on the EU market more environmentally friendly, circular, and energy efficient throughout their whole lifecycle from the design phase through their daily use, repurposing, and end-of-life. As part of the Action Plan dated June 2023 the Environment Committee put forward a proposal to make products in the EU ready for those conditions by developing a strategy to prolong the lifetime of equipments and to protect consumers. An important part of this proposal is to set common rules promoting the repair of goods, advancing towards the objective of sustainable consumption under the European Green Deal (Figure 01). Developing a repair approach will reduce e-waste and reduce the environmental impact, resulting in significant savings for consumers and all of society. As part of that and similar to how it is for Ecodesign energy consumption labeling, France has proposed the use of a similar label bearing a reparability index to inform consumers about the possibility of repairing a product whilst consumers should have access to repair guidelines. As proposed in the scope of the project, on December 4 2023 the European Parliament and Council provisionally agreed an update to the ‘ecodesign’ rules, aiming to improve various aspects of products throughout their lifecycle to make them more durable, reliable, easier to reuse, upgrade, repair and recycle, use less resources and energy and water. The proposal covers consumer goods and concerns defects that may occur in them, whether or not still under legal guarantee. The producer will have an obligation to repair goods for five to ten years after they were purchased. Goods for which reparability requirements currently exist include household products such as washing machines, washer-dryers, dishwashers, refrigeration appliances, electronic displays, welding equipment, vacuum cleaners, and servers and data storage. Mobile phones, cordless phones and tablets are also listed in the recent draft, and EV chargers have been considered in the latest discussions. All of these products use power supplies and manufacturers need to keep future legislation and regulations in mind and monitor their evolution. Figure 01 Left - Green Deal policy framework around ESPR (green) and the ESPR’s relationship to the Ecodesign directive (blue). (Source:PRBX/Ecochain)
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