A newly launched EU-funded project involving 14 partners from research and industry across Europe will explore and demonstrate, how to recycle, repurpose, and reuse wind turbine blade waste.
The project includes building a large-scale industrial demonstration plant in Spain, to further develop and scale technologies that will transform rotor blade waste into new circular building solutions, such as concrete, aggregates, or dry mortars, among others. The recyclates from blades will serve multiple purposes in the construction industry and simultaneously reduce the amount of virgin materials needed. The newly launched EU-funded project Blades2Build, will explore circular options for decommissioned blades as well as for blade manufacturing waste, where it is estimated that approximately 25% of materials used for blade manufacturing are discarded as waste. Blades2Build also aims to establish a knowledge hub connecting several stakeholders within the wind energy sector, including policymakers, NGOs, end-users, service providers, industrials, etc.
Blades2Build project consists of 14 partners coordinated by the Technical University of Denmark - DTU (DTU Sustain, Ana Teresa Lima). In the project, Acciona Construccion will lead all the construction material upscaling and process development activities, while partner Holcim will be responsible for the testing and scalability of circularity frameworks and will support the development of Circular Building Solutions. LM Wind Power and GE Renewable Energy will bring expertise on circularity, and wind park management and will support the scaling up of circular solutions for decommissioned blades and blade manufacturing waste. Partners NTUA, TUE and RWTH will focus on lab-scale testing and characterization tasks and recycling technologies, while Eldan and RWTH will deal with composites processing, and RWTH will also deal with the environmental impact of newly developed building materials from wind blade waste. Renao will ensure in Blades2Build the overall coordination for preparing and assessing the demonstration phase, while partner PZGR will be responsible for the construction, commissioning, and operation of a recycling and valorisation plant, supported by PZE, whilst Endesa will play the key role of the GO/NO-GO decision. Lastly, the RWTH team will assess environmental impacts and economic viability at product and plant levels, and GCS will be leading all efforts related to communication, dissemination, and exploitation, as well as the development of the Knowledge-Hub.