Wind energy rises to the challenge of recyclability
Along with other renewable energies, wind power will play a key role in the energy mix for decades to come. This increasingly competitive energy sector is growing, but in order to be truly sustainable, wind power must rapidly find a solution to one major challenge - how to efficiently recycle blades at the end of their life.
93 GW: the wind power industry installed this amount of new capacity worldwide in 2020, the best year in history, despite the pandemic. At the end of 2020, the world's wind farms totaled 743 GW, or more than 1.1 billion tons of CO2 avoided each year, equivalent to the annual emissions of South America. This growth is being driven by China and the United States, which together account for 75% of new facilities. Supported by proactive public policies and improved energy efficiency, this development is expected to continue. According to estimates from the Global Wind Energy Council, the pace of new facilities is set to reach 280 GW annually to help achieve the goal of keeping the average temperature rise “well below 2°C” by 2050.
The growing problem of blades reaching the end of their lives. The success of this sector is, however, suffering a setback that could tarnish its environmental record in the short term - with the first wind turbines installed 20 years ago reaching the end of their lives, the issue of managing decommissioned units is becoming increasingly pressing.
While 85 to 90% of the mass of the turbines (the steel mast, the concrete slab and so on) is recycled satisfactorily, how to manage the end-of-life blades remains a problem for the current models made of composite, combining a thermosetting resin (mainly epoxy) and glass or carbon fibers. Fiberglass blades can potentially be ground to provide fuel for the cement industry, but carbon fiber blades cannot currently be reused and end up being buried.
