Turn Retired Blades and Production Waste Into Energy
An increasing number of rotor blades will come to the end of their design life cycle in the coming years. Figure 1 gives an estimate of the volume to be expected based on the assumption that 50% of all blades installed will be operational for the calculated lifetime of 20 years and 50% need to be replaced prematurely. Additionally, the production of the blades generates a significant amount of composite waste. It can be assumed that approximately 200,000 tons of composite materials need to be processed annually from 2020, with a doubling by 2030
By Moreno Ciotti, Heiko Müller and Crystal Zhang