Options for Reuse or Recycling of Wind Turbine Blades

The use of wind energy has expanded significantly in the last 20 years. It began the century as a niche energy source in Europe and the United States and ended up currently being a mainstream source of clean, cost-competitive energy around the world. In 2019, the global wind energy market reached a new milestone of 651 GW cumulative installed capacity, with strong continued growth foreseen across America, Asia, and Europe. And as onshore wind technology has matured, offshore wind has been embraced by governments and international institutions as one of the next game-changers in the energy transition.

With the increased use of wind turbines to support the energy transition to renewable sources comes the increasing challenge of the recycling or reuse of the turbine blades after decommissioning of turbines. Due to their materials of construction turbine blades cannot be disposed of easily. Dumping blades on a landfill is not a viable and environmentally acceptable solution. And other ideas currently applied may not be capable of handling the number of blades that will require disposal in the near future.

The main objective of this report is to provide information on possible solutions for the recycling of wind turbine blades, considering their components and materials of construction, the number of wind turbines in different geographical regions, and the turbine's expected lifetime. Several options for turbine blades recycling will be compared and their advantages and disadvantages will be discussed. The report concludes with our recommendation for a path forward including the identification of existing gaps in information and research that need to be closed.