Although capturing wind energy is a significant component of the renewable energy mix, when those enormous turbine blades approach the end of their useful lives, they can end up in landfills as waste. However, Siemens Gamesa, a wind engineering company based in Spain, has developed a recyclable blade that can be repurposed to make new items when its wind-catching days are over.
Similarly, Last year, the world’s largest turbine manufacturer Vestas announced plans to create 100% recyclable wind turbine blades to ensure that future wind power will produce as little waste as possible.
The enormous blades used in commercial wind farm installations are made of composite materials, which have proven more challenging and frequently more expensive to recycle than other wind turbine parts like towers and nacelles.
Massive wind turbine blades are made from glass and carbon fiber heated together with epoxy resin. Usually, these materials can’t be separated once combined. This is why they typically end up in landfills once they become too beaten to operate safely.
Thankfully, the RecyclableBlades will not wind up in the landfills. A novel epoxy resin system that uses the proprietary Recyclamine technology from project partners Aditya Birla Advanced Materials is the key to Siemens Gamesa’s development of RecyclableBlades.
Siemens Gamesa explained in a journal post:
“Unlike conventional materials, the recyclable resin system enables the recycling of blades and recovery of reinforcement and the resin matrix. The recovered blade materials can be reused and repurposed, bringing them back into the system and closing the loop.
Furthermore, the resin has been designed for extra slow reactivity to enable improved processability and cure faster than conventional materials, thereby contributing towards lowering cycle time in blade manufacturing.”
The resin, fiberglass, wood, and other components used to make the RecyclableBlade would be separated when the turbine blade’s service life is over using a mild acid solution. They could then be used to create new items like flat-screen casings or suitcases.
The first RecyclableBlades created by Siemens Gamesa at a factory in Aalborg, Denmark, were produced in Hull, United Kingdom, after validation testing and pilot trials last year.
Today, the first turbine with 266-ft (81-m)-long RecyclableBlades is undergoing tests in functional conditions while also generating electricity at the Kaskasi offshore wind farm in the North Sea. By the end of this year, thirty-eight Siemens Gamesa 8.0-167 DD turbines with an installed capacity of 342 MW are expected to operate at this RWE Renewables-operated plant.
Marc Becker, the CEO of Siemens Gamesa’s Offshore Business Unit, said:
“We’ve brought the Siemens Gamesa RecyclableBlade technology to market in only ten months: from launch in September 2021 to installation at RWE’s Kaskasi project in July 2022. This is impressive and underlines the pace at which we all need to move to provide enough generating capacity to combat the global climate emergency.
Furthermore, this milestone marks a significant contribution to Siemens Gamesa’s target of having fully recyclable turbines by 2040. With RecyclableBlade available for our customers, we can create a virtuous circular economy.”
Soon, more wind turbines at the Kaskasi wind farm are expected to be outfitted with B81 RecyclableBlades. Additionally, Siemens Gamesa states that the technology can be scaled up to manufacture blades that are 354 ft (108 m) for the company’s 14-222 DD turbines and 377 ft (115 m) long for its 14-236 DD turbines. Future projects using the development are also being discussed with the WPD Offshore and EDF Group.
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