LM Wind Power and GE Renewable Energy are joining twelve partners in the Blades2Build (B2B) project to develop new recycling solutions for manufacturing waste as well as end-of-life blades. By 2030, the European onshore and offshore wind energy market is expected to increase by approximately 40 per cent. With few commercially viable recycling options available today, blades are at the risk of being sent to landfills at the end of their (20-25 years) service life.
The B2B project includes building a large-scale industrial demonstration plant in Spain that will convert waste into new building solutions such as concrete, aggregates, or dry mortars. With very limited recycling options available today, LM Wind Power said the company is committed to contributing to scaling up technologies and developing a viable and sustainable value chain for the recycling of composite waste. The company is already part of the DecomBlades project, and the B2B initiative is another step in that direction.
”The wind power industry produces far less composite waste compared to other industries. Still, it is an important objective for us to ensure sustainable recycling solutions exist for all materials used in a wind turbine. Blades are already recyclable today in the sense that there are technical solutions to handle their waste. But blades are very often not recycled in practice due to the lack of cost-efficient solutions in most markets,” said Katelyn Huber, LM Wind Power Sustainability Leader.