Press-release for WiseWind project
An innovative research project will focus on further decarbonizing the wind turbine industry by developing new blade materials, which will ensure re-processability, easy reparability and repeated recyclability of blades. This breakthrough project will be made possible thanks to a DKK 12.5 million investment from The Innovation Fund Denmark (IFD).
The project, called WiseWind, is a collaboration between DTU Wind, Siemens Gamesa and Re-Flow ApS. During the next 3 years, the partners will work together to develop a new generation of re-processable, repairable and recyclable wind turbine blade materials, and complex computational models for the optimization of the blade materials and end-of-life technologies.
As a result, the recyclability of new large wind turbine blades will increase, while significantly lowering the environmental impact of the blades, a challenge that is critically important, with a view to further expand onshore and offshore wind energy in the following years and decades.
The new blade materials will be based on vitrimer epoxy resins, with properties similar to regular epoxy resins, but with dynamically interchangeable bonds, which can be rearranged during thermoforming. This new resin improves reparability and can be recycled many times.
The new generation of sustainable wind turbine blades will be developed on the basis of a digital twin of blade materials “from cradle to cradle”. This digital twin consists of a virtual model designed to accurately reflect the performance of the materials. Through WiseWind, partners will develop the computational models of blade manufacturing, operation and recycling, whose learnings will allow optimization of manufacturing, operation and recycling conditions of the blades.
‘The solution should be designed in an optimal way, so that the new materials satisfy all the requirements of today and tomorrow’s wind energy, including repeated recyclability and reusability of materials’, says Justine Beauson, project leader and development engineer at DTU Wind.
‘A number of solutions to the blade recycling problem are under development now. The required long term solution for blade sustainability should be based on quantitative analysis of the blade operation and end of life transformation, allowing development of multiple, repeatable and low footprint recycling technologies. This will be achieved in this project by developing and using a digital twin of blade materials “from cradle to cradle”, which will be applied to realize all the potential of new materials for blades’, says Leon Mishnaevsky, scientific coordinator of the project.
Siemens Gamesa has already produced, brought to the market and installed the world first recyclable wind turbine blades. Within WiseWind, the company is now looking for ways to create a new generation of blades capable of meeting future requirements such as multiple recyclability, reduced costs, and easy reparability.
Jonas Pagh Jensen, Head of Sustainable Value Chains at Siemens Gamesa, commented: “With this project we will continue the development of new generation of easier repairable and reprocessable wind turbine blades in close collaboration with our skilled projects partners DTU Wind and ReFlow, to continue ensuring the sustainability of the wind industry”.
The sustainability of the new solutions will be analyzed by the project partner Re-Flow ApS, a startup with expertise in lifecycle assessment and circular economy. Rasmus Elsborg-Jensen, CEO of ReFlow, expects that the application of advanced lifecycle assessment calculations will allow optimal choice of manufacturing, operation and recycling regimes of new wind turbine blades.