The REFRESH project is looking forward to WindEurope’s End-of-Life Issues and Strategies (EoLIS) seminar on 4-5 December.

EoLIS 2024 takes place in Gothenburg.

Europe’s turbines are ageing

Europe’s wind energy capacity is expanding year after year, but existing turbines are ageing. According to WindEurope, 783 MW of capacity was decommissioned in Europe last year, and 27 GW is expected to be decommissioned between now and 2030.

EoLIS is WindEurope’s annual meeting looking at the challenges, and opportunities, the industry faces when it comes to aging turbines. The event also addresses innovation and how to deliver turbines which last longer, require less maintenance, and can be repurposed beyond their service life.

Advancing turbine blade recycling

Wind turbine blade recycling will again be a key topic and REFRESH will join other projects and initiatives to present solutions.

The conference session Advances in wind turbine blade recycling technologies takes place on Wednesday 4 December 2024, 11:45-12:45, in Room G3. It aims to provide updates on new projects and the latest progress on ongoing ones.

Session description
Around 14,000 blades could be dismantled across the continent in the next five years, which would amount to between 40,000 and 60,000 tonnes of waste. As WindEurope and others are calling for a Europe-wide landfill ban on wind turbine blades from 2025 onwards, this would mean that the wind industry needs to commit to 100% recycling or recovery of out-of-service blades. For this reason, different projects and initiatives are being developed to promote blade recycling through different technologies.

Presentations

• REFRESH Project, Giorgio Betteto, R&D CTO, Gees Recycling
• DeremCo Project, Marcello Colledani, Full Professor, Politecnico di Milano, and co-founder of FiberEUse Tech
• Stena’s Composite Blade Recycling project, Louise Drue Andersen, Wind Segment Leader, Stena Recycling
• EnergyLOOP, Iván Botamino García, Head of Materials Engineering and Renewable Energy Department – Technical Management, FCC Ámbito

Session chair: Gian Marco Gioffré, Advisor Sustainability, WindEurope

For further information and registration visit the WindEurope EoLIS website.