Project description
Wind turbine blades don’t need to end up in landfills
Renewable energy targets are increasing. The EU is aiming for renewables to make up more than 40 % of its energy mix by 2030, and wind energy (offshore and onshore) will be a large part of this plan. It is therefore more important than ever to upgrade existing wind turbines. Unfortunately, wind turbine blades create huge amounts of waste. When a wind turbine reaches its end of life, the blades are not recycled. To reverse this trend, the EU-funded Blades2Build project will develop solutions for recycling the blades. It will work closely with key actors in related sectors to research, assess and demonstrate the best solutions.
Objective
By 2030, renewable Energy Sources (RES), and its infrastructures, are expected to increase 40% in Europe. Parts of RES strategies are onshore and offshore wind energy. The investment into new RES infrastructure implies an update of the current wind turbines, resulting in waste of the composite materials that constitute blades. To turn RES into the most promising and economically viable sources of renewable energy, we need to provide clean renewable energy without any emissions during operation. The blades, among the most important components in the wind turbines, made with composite, are currently regarded as unrecyclable. It is estimated that by 2050 the end-of-life (EOL) blades waste will generate more than 2 Mt annually, and cumulative blade waste in 2050 will lie between 21.4 Mt and 69.4 Mt, worldwide. EOL options for decommissioning wind turbine blades should be explored with the aim of providing environmentally favorable guidelines for managing wind turbine blade waste, and the possibility for material recovery and recycling is crucial if circular economy is the goal in the wind power sector.
One possibility to avoid the accumulation of EOL blades in the environment is to convert the composite blades into new environmentally friendly building materials such as green cement. This option would demand some processing of the composite waste. Another option could be the reuse of the blades directly without much processing, e.g. . as new blades or as other products. Furthermore, the composite waste from blades could be combined with similar waste from other industrial sectors to enlarge the potential of a composite wind blade recycling process.
Therefore, the general scope of the proposed project is to evaluate and demonstrate in large scale the possibility of recycling or resource recovery from blades and similar waste materials in a large consortium with some of Europe's key players in areas of importance for the project.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering waste management waste treatment processes recycling
- engineering and technology materials engineering composites
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy wind energy
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.2.5 - Climate, Energy and Mobility
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.5.2 - Energy Supply
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation Actions
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL5-2022-D3-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
2800 Kongens Lyngby
Denmark
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.