- Aug. 2nd 2022 10:36 am PT
Siemens Gamesa’s first recyclable blades are spinning on a wind turbine at the Kaskasi offshore wind farm in Germany. It’s the first commercial installation of recyclable wind turbine technology.
The Spanish-German wind engineering giant calls its recyclable blade technology RecyclableBlade. Wind turbine blades are made of a number of materials embedded in resin. Siemens Gamesa explains:
Separating the resin, fiberglass, and wood, among others, is achieved through using a mild acid solution. The materials can then go into the circular economy, creating new products like suitcases or flat-screen casings without the need to call on more raw resources.
The RecyclableBlade technology was developed in Aalborg, Denmark, and the blades were manufactured in Hull in the UK (pictured above). The nacelles were produced and installed in Cuxhaven, Germany. Siemens Gamesa has a plan to make all of its wind turbine blades fully recyclable by 2030 and all of its wind turbines fully recyclable by 2040.
Marc Becker, CEO of the Siemens Gamesa Offshore Business Unit, said:
We’ve brought the Siemens Gamesa RecyclableBlade technology to market in only 10 months: from launch in September 2021 to installation at RWE’s Kaskasi project in July 2022. This is impressive and underlines the pace at which we all need to move to provide enough generating capacity to combat the global climate emergency.
The 342 megawatt (MW) Kaskasi offshore wind farm is owned by German energy company RWE. It’s 35 km (21.7 miles) north of the island of Helgoland in the German North Sea.
Siemens Gamesa doesn’t specify how many of the offshore wind farm’s 38 SG 8.0-167 DD wind turbines will feature the RecyclableBlade; it just says that “a number of turbines” will be recyclable. Those turbines that do feature them will have “handcrafted Siemens Gamesa B81 RecyclableBlades, each with a length of 81 meters [266 feet].”
Read more: Siemens Gamesa claims world’s first recyclable offshore wind turbine blade
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Michelle Lewis is a writer and editor on Electrek and an editor on DroneDJ, 9to5Mac, and 9to5Google. She lives in White River Junction, Vermont. She has previously worked for Fast Company, the Guardian, News Deeply, Time, and others. Message Michelle on Twitter or at michelle@9to5mac.com. Check out her personal blog.
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