EuCIA is collaborating with project coordinator RINA Consulting to organise the REFRESH project’s webinar Scaling up recycling technologies for wind turbine blades on 17 November.
The webinar is free to attend and registration is open now.
A circular future for wind energy
The wind energy industry is committed to promoting a circular economy which reduces environmental impacts throughout a wind turbine’s life cycle, including the end-of-life phase. Most components of a wind turbine have established recycling routes, but the rotor blades, which mainly comprise highly durable composite materials, present a complex challenge. Existing recycling solutions for glass fibre reinforced composites are not yet widely available or economically competitive.
WindEurope reports that thousands of smaller wind turbines will reach the end of their operational life in the coming years. By 2030, Europe is expected to generate over 50 kilotonnes of end-of-life blade waste. Around 14,000 blades are projected to be dismantled, amounting to between 40,000 and 60,000 tonnes of material. Scaling up sustainable recycling and repurposing solutions, such as those being developed in the REFRESH project, is essential to transform these materials into useful new products and applications.
The REFRESH solution
The webinar Scaling up recycling technologies for wind turbine blades will take place on 17th November at 14:00-16:00 CET. It will present the progress being made by the EU-funded REFRESH project, which is aiming to develop and demonstrate a novel smart, circular system enabling improved recycling of glass fibre reinforced composite materials from turbine blades.
The event will focus on the first part of the REFRESH value chain:
- Blade cutting, shredding and sorting technologies (ETAT9, MTB Manufacturing);
- Composites recycling processes (Gees Recycling, Gjenkraft, CIRCE, Enecolab).
A preliminary LCA study has recently highlighted the potential environmental benefits of the REFRESH recycling processes.
REFRESH is also developing a range of products using the recycled materials resulting from these processes, as well as a block chain traceability platform covering the complete value chain. These aspects of the project will be covered in a second webinar in 2026.
RINA Consulting will host the meeting and partners ACCIONA, EuCIA, CETMA and TECNALIA will also be attending.
More details on the programme will follow soon.
REFRESH is funded under the Horizon Europe programme. The project commenced in January 2023 and will conclude in December 2026.
