New Material and Design Concepts Supporting Circularity in Wind Turbine Blades
Wind energy plays a key role in the transition towards renewable and low-carbon energy systems. As global wind capacity continues to grow, increasing attention is being paid to the lifetime, repairability and end-of-life treatment of rotor blades, which are mainly made from composites reinforced with glass fibre and, in some cases, carbon fibre materials. Improving the circularity of these structures has therefore become an important challenge for the wind industry. Within the European research project ReCreate, the project partners INVENT, RES-T, Applus+ Rescoll, and the Fraunhofer Institutes WKI and IWU are developing new approaches, combining alternative materials, manufacturing technologies, and design strategies to enable more repairable and recyclable rotor blade structures.
By Justus von Freeden, Research Associate, Fraunhofer IWU, Germany
