Onshore wind energy projects can now use recyclable turbine blades

Early last month, Siemens Gamesa reported that recyclable turbine blades had been successfully installed at the Kaskasi offshore wind farm in the North Sea. Now the company has announced the market availability of an onshore equivalent.

The company reports that, although around 85 per cent of wind turbines can be fully recycled at the end of their working lives, many of their huge blades end up in a landfill. The RecyclableBlades project was created to change that, New Atlas reports.

The key to making Siemens Gamesa's turbine blades recyclable after decommissioning is an epoxy resin system based on proprietary technology from project partners Aditya Birla Advanced Materials. This allows for the recovery of composite materials using a mild acidic solution, which allows the various materials to be reused or repurposed in consumer goods manufacture, construction, or the automotive industry.

The offshore RecycleBlade flavour was initially launched in September 2021 and underwent validation testing before the first 81-m-long (266-ft) blades were installed on a turbine as the Kaskasi offshore wind farm in the North Sea in July of this year.

Siemens Gamesa now says that onshore versions of the technology are available for deployment at customer project locations, though hasn't detailed any current blade sizes or production details.

"Launching our RecyclableBlade for onshore sites is another outstanding achievement from our dedicated professionals," said company CEO, Jochen Eickholt. "The concept was always foreseen to encompass solutions for offshore and onshore, and we’re pleased to now provide them commercially to our customers in both market segments."

Siemens Gamesa is planning to only produce fully recyclable wind turbines by 2024 and has partnered with WindEurope and others in the industry such as GE Renewable Energy and Vestas to call for a Europe-wide ban on sending turbine blades to landfill.