Making wind turbines more sustainable

With impending net-zero targets, the need for a sustainable wind-energy supply chain is more important than ever. Research projects at the Lightweight Manufacturing Centre (LMC), are providing a vital opportunity to explore this area and identify ground-breaking processes that will help meet the increased demand for wind turbines – but with a more environmentally friendly supply chain. 

A crucial element
of our research is finding the most effective recycling routes for glass fibre-reinforced plastics (GRP), the composite material most commonly used in the manufacture of wind turbine blades.

In line with this research, we are also looking to tackle emerging problems around the processing of end-of-life carbon fibre products containing similar materials that are used across the aerospace and automotive
industries, to save them from going to landfill. 

When products containing GRP come to the end of their life, we want to recover as much of that material as possible through circular processing. At the LMC, we are working alongside the University of Strathclyde’s (UoS) Advanced Composites Group (ACG) to develop sustainable processes that will permit the cost-effective recycling of GRP
at industry scale. 

This is of significance because almost all of the scrap thermoset GRP generated in the UK – around 80 kilotons each year – currently goes to landfill. That’s the equivalent weight of 6,324 double-decker buses. This number looks set to rise as wind turbines installed from the first wave of wind power in the 1990s rapidly reach
the end of their 25-year life expectancy. The blades are constructed from composite materials – older blades from glass fibre, and newer blades including carbon fibre. This allows for light and strong designs, but also makes them challenging to recycle. This is likely to contribute more than 20 kilotons of waste each year, in the UK alone, by mid-2030s...

Read the full article in DPA's November issue