2026 Reports

Metals-as-a-Service (MaaS): A Strategic and Investable Circular Business Model for the Wind Energy Industry and Beyond

Jaydeokar, Aniruddha Pravin; Toledano, Perrine; Ofusa, Shunta; Garcia Cancino, Laura

The current metals system is still largely linear, reliant on continuous primary extraction, and unlikely to meet the scale of demand required for the energy transition. The Metals as-a-Service (MaaS) circular business model responds to this constraint by fundamentally changing how metals are owned and used. Instead of being sold as one-off inputs, metals are owned and retained on the balance sheet of a dedicated entity (the “Asset Owner”) and provided as a service across their lifecycle to a user (the “Lessee”) through a leasing operation, from manufacturing to recovery. This allows metals to be reused across multiple cycles, incentivizes recovery, and turns material flows into monetized, traceable assets. In doing so, MaaS reduces upfront capital needs for users, improves supply security by mobilizing both primary and secondary sources, and creates a more coordinated and circular system across the value chain.

Beyond operational changes, MaaS also reshapes the financial logic of metals. Replacing upfront metal purchases with predictable service payments generates steady, long-term cash flows that can be treated as investable assets. At the same time, digital tracking and design for recovery improve visibility over material use and condition, making risks easier to monitor and manage.

This enables new forms of long-term financing and aligns incentives across producers, users, recyclers, and investors. In sectors like wind energy, where material intensity is high and long-term supply is critical, MaaS offers a way to combine circularity with bankability, supporting both infrastructure scaling and the more efficient use of finite resources.

This report presents the results of an economic model, demonstrating the financial viability of a MaaS model for both the Asset Owner (in this case, the SPV) and the metal user (in this case, the wind developer). It starts with an explanation of the key metrics for measuring risk-adjusted performance.