Engineering company Siemens Gamesa has launched what it says is the world’s first wind turbine blade that can be recycled at the end of its life cycle
Wind power is one cornerstone to help tackle the climate emergency. With more than 200GW of new offshore capacity projected by the Global Wind Energy Council to be installed by 2030, it is critical to introduce recyclable solutions.
So catering to this, Siemens Gamesa has introduced RecyclableBlade which is ready for commercial use offshore. With this technology, separation of the materials in the blade is possible at the end of its lifetime, enabling recycling into new applications and defines the next milestone in sustainability, according to the company.
The first six 81m-long RecyclableBlades have been produced at the Siemens Gamesa blade factory in Aalborg, Denmark.
“The time to tackle climate emergency is now, and we need to do it in a holistic way,” said Andreas Nauen, CEO of Siemens Gamesa. “In pioneering wind circularity – where elements contribute to a circular economy of the wind industry – we have reached a major milestone in a society that puts care for the environment at its heart. The RecyclableBlade is another tangible example of how Siemens Gamesa is leading technological development in the wind industry.”
Many components of a wind turbine, such as the tower and nacelle components, have established recycling practices. Until now, the composite materials used in wind turbine blades have been more challenging to recycle.
Siemens Gamesa will partner with RWE Renewables to install and monitor the world’s first wind turbines with recyclable blades in Germany at the Kaskasi offshore wind power plant. Current plans are for the project to be producing energy from 2022 onwards.
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