Vestas is offering a new solution that ‘renders epoxy-based turbine blades as circular’, without the need for changing the design or composition of blade material. Combining newly discovered chemical technology developed within the CETEC initiative (Circular Economy for Thermoset Epoxy Composites — a coalition of industry and academia established to investigate circular technology for turbine blades), the solution can be applied to blades currently in operation; and once matured, this will eliminate the need for blade redesign, or landfill disposal of epoxy-based blades when they are decommissioned.
Lisa Ekstrand, Vestas’s vice president and head of sustainability, said: “Until now, the wind industry has believed that turbine blade material calls for a new approach to design and manufacture to be either recyclable, or beyond this, circular, at end of life. Going forward, we can now view old epoxy-based blades as a source of raw material.
“Once this new technology is implemented at scale, legacy blade material currently sitting in landfill, as well as blade material in active windfarms, can be disassembled, and reused. This signals a new era for the wind industry and accelerates our journey towards achieving circularity.”
Turbine blades have previously been challenging to recycle due to the chemical properties of epoxy resin, a resilient substance that was believed to be impossible to break down into re-usable components. This has led to many technology leaders attempting to replace or modify epoxy resin with alternatives that can be more easily treated, but Vestas’s solution features a chemical process that can chemically break down epoxy resin into virgin-grade materials.
Through a newly established value chain, supported by Nordic recycling leader Stena Recycling and global epoxy manufacturer Olin, Vestas will now focus on scaling up the ‘novel chemical disassembly process’ into a commercial solution. Once mature, the solution will signal the beginning of a circular economy for all existing, and future epoxy-based turbine blades.
Henrik Grand Petersen, the managing director of Stena Recycling Denmark, said: “In the coming years, thousands of turbines will be decommissioned or repowered, representing not only a major sustainability challenge but also a valuable source of composite materials. As one of Europe’s leading recycling groups with a wide footprint in Europe, we have a central role in the transition to a circular economy.
“We see this solution as a huge opportunity to take part in making a sustainable solution even more sustainable and circular and are ready to apply our chemical recycling expertise and knowledge to this process.”