Vestas May have solved the wind industry’s dirty little secret. Up till recently, it was assumed that traditional wind turbine blades, held together with epoxy resin, couldn’t be recycled. Most were ending up in the landfill. But Vestas has developed a chemical process that could make these blades into a circular economy. They could even recycle ones already in the landfill. They should be easy to find!
Vestas, Aarhus University, Danish Technological Institute, and epoxy maker Olin have developed a novel process that can chemically break down epoxy resin into virgin-grade materials. The four industry and academic partners formed a coalition called the CETEC project – Circular Economy for Thermosets Epoxy Composites – in May 2021.
This innovation needs to scale up quickly as more and more blades reach the end of their useful life.
WindEurope expects around 25,000 tonnes of blades to reach the end of their operational life annually by 2025, rising to 52,000 tonnes by 2030.
https://electrek.co/2023/02/08/wind-turbine-recycle-blades/
Darcy Hitchcock 