Wind turbine blade end-of-life options: An economic comparison

Abstract

Global wind energy is developing rapidly, with total installed capacity having increased from 24,332 MW in 2001 to 650,758 MW in 2019. Environmental concerns have been raised over the large volumes of waste that will be generated as these wind turbine blades are decommissioned over the coming decades. Although wind turbines are largely clean during operation, in manufacture and end-of-life stages they release emissions and consume significant energy. Wind turbine blades are mainly made from lightweight thermoset composites (glass fibre/carbon fibre), which are economically challenging to recycle. This study aims to understand the economic feasibilities of recycling technology options for blade waste management. We have used a quantitative method, first building a financial performance model for wind turbine blade end of life, then evaluating and comparing the financial performance for all available end of life options, and finally performing a sensitivity analysis. We found that mechanical recycling and fluidised-bed recycling are the optimal options of the ready-to-go technologies, and chemical recycling is the optimal option for technologies currently available only at lab scale.