As ageing offshore wind farms are being decommissioned and offshore wind power is set to reach nearly 1000 GW of installed capacity by 2050, the industry needs to develop ways to make its turbines more circular.

Making the production of its turbines as sustainable as the green energy they produce has been a focus for the offshore wind energy industry for several years now. The growing number of European countries that have banned landfill, as well as specific circular economy legislation and an increasing focus on sustainability in offshore wind auctions has only accelerated the trend.

Siemens Gamesa has established a target of producing fully recyclable blades by 2030 and fully recyclable turbines by 2040. While it is currently possible to recycle 85% of a turbine, recycling the turbine’s blades in a cost-efficient way has proved more problematic. This is due to the fact that dissolving the resin used to fuse the different elements of the blade together has not been possible.

With this in mind, Siemens Gamesa has developed the RecyclableBlade – an offshore turbine blade that has been produced according to the same design criteria as their other blades but utilises a new type of resin that, while as durable and reliable as the previous resin used, can be dissolved. The new blades mean that in the future when Siemens Gamesa’s turbines are dismantled for decommissioning, the blades can be immersed in a mildly acidic solution that allows the resin to dissolve. The glass fibre, resin, core material and metal are then separated and can be reused in other industries.

The first six blades using the new resin were produced in Siemens Gamesa’s factory in Aalborg, Denmark in 2021 after rigorous testing and qualification. RecyclableBlades have been installed on the German offshore wind farm Kaskasi throughout 2022 and manufacturing capacity is being expanded to fully commercialise the blades. It is expected that the RecyclableBlade can be utilised on large-scale wind farms by 2024.

The Siemens Gamesa Recyclable Blade is an important milestone in achieving the company’s vision of fully recyclable turbines by 2040. If all new offshore projects leading up to 2050 are equipped with RecylableBlades, more than 200,000 blades would be recycled, rather than ending up in landfill, thus significantly lowering Siemens Gamesa’s environmental impact. Furthermore, being able to separate and recycle the blade materials instead of paying to dispose of them could transform some of the costs associated with decommissioning into revenue streams.