Siemens Gamesa Reveals Recyclable Blade For Onshore Wind Power Projects

Stepping-up the circularity within wind turbines segment, Siemens Gamesa has announced that launching of its Recyclable Blade for onshore wind power projects. It held that this RecyclableBlade is set to propel the activities that make wind energy even more sustainable, creating a fully circular sector. Recycling blades from Wind power stes has been one of the biggest challenges for Wind Energy so far on the recycling front.

The Siemens Gamesa RecyclableBlade for ‘offshore’ was brought to market in only 10 months. It was launched in September 2021 and installed at RWE’s Kaskasi project in Germany in July 2022. Now the onshore solution is ready for deployment at onshore wind farm.

Jochen Eickholt, CEO, Siemens Gamesa, held, “Launching our RecyclableBlade for onshore sites is another outstanding achievement from our dedicated professionals. The concept was always foreseen to encompass solutions for offshore and onshore, and we’re pleased to now provide them commercially to our customers in both market segments.”

Siemens Gamesa said that both onshore and offshore markets around the world look for recyclable solutions. Also, turbine sizes and their blades are growing rapidly. With the RecyclableBlade for onshore, Siemens Gamesa said it continues to put action behind its Sustainability Vision towards 2040 where a core target is fully recyclable wind turbines by 2040 at the latest.

The RecyclableBlade recovery process uses a mild acidic solution to separate the materials at the end of a wind turbine’s lifetime. Those materials can then be recycled for use in other industrial applications like construction, consumer goods or automotive industry.

Tim Dawidowsky, Chief Sustainability Officer, added, “Together with our customers and our suppliers, we want wind power solutions from Siemens Gamesa to continue to help countries around the world meet their net zero carbon emission goals.”

The complex production process for blades, involving composite materials including resin, glass and carbon fibers, made disposal at the end of the wind turbine’s lifecycle challenging. Many blades were simply sent to landfill upon decommissioning.

The company said that in addition to developing the world’s first fully recyclable blade, its working with WindEurope and other industry players in calling for a Europe-wide ban on using landfills for discarded blades.