Two years ago, Bloomberg published a picture of large wind turbine blade fragments being buried in earth in Wyoming, USA. ‘Wind turbine blades can’t be recycled, so they’re piling up in landfills’ the accompanying headline read. The story and image of piled-up, dusty white blades, much smaller than today’s which can reach up to 107m, was not a good look for an industry born from the need to combat climate change.
This paradox was not lost on the sector; for some time, manufacturers had been working to find solutions to a problem it knew was set to escalate. Around 25,000 tonnes of blades will reach the end of their operational life every year by 2025, this number could increase to 52,000 tonnes by 2030, according to industry trade body WindEurope.
The organisation, backed by its members, including turbine manufacturers Siemens Gamesa and Vestas, is calling for a landfill ban on wind turbine components by 2025.
“Our aim is to make them 100 per cent circular...