This is how the oldest renewables 'retire': recycling, incineration ... or landfill

• Energy Spain is left out of the millionaire world race for offshore wind

"We have found a solution to German white wine," jokes

, Director of Quality and Environment at Siemens Gamesa. It refers to the

in which, at the end of its useful life, the new innovation of the German company is dissolved: the world's first recyclable wind turbine blade. "The shovel is disassembled, chopped, and immersed in a tank, with an acid solution at a temperature of 180 degrees, thus we get the resin to dissolve, and the fiberglass is recovered 100%. It can be reused for make tables, cars or construction material ", explains Acero.

85% of the components of a wind turbine can be recycled. However, until now there was no solution for the blades, one of the largest pieces. Conventional blades are made of

as fiberglass and epoxy resin. In addition, they also include exclusive materials such as balsa wood from

or

The construction process involves consolidating all the materials to create blades with a durability of up to 20 years, capable of withstanding up to a typhoon. "The technology is not a revolution in the blade itself, but in its chemical composition, we are changing the resin", explains Acero.

And how are they usually recycled? Depending on the country and its legislation. There are those who incinerate them to generate energy, as in Denmark, but there are also countries where they are pulverized and used as a material for cement. "In less developed countries from the point of view of recycling, such as the United States, they are thrown into the landfill directly," says the director. In this sense, Acero explains that the development of the product began as an

of several European countries to prohibit these shovels from ending up in the trash. The manufacture, at the moment, is only done in Denmark and England, although they do not rule out starting to manufacture in Spain once its commercialization is extended.

Thus, the innovation is currently available only for

wind turbines

, that is, those that are in the sea.

In this type of wind turbine,

and each turbine can generate up to 81 GW of energy and supply electricity for up to 8,000 homes.

The German company has already manufactured six recyclable shovels at the Aalborg plant, Denmark and ensures that the countries with "stronger environmental legislation" are those that are willing to "spend a little more", although it considers that the price increase "It will not be relevant", so it will not deter investors.

Source: Siemens Gamesa

In this sense, the developers foresee that, if this innovation is used exclusively in all wind energy projects, 200,000 blades could be recycled between now and 2050. Taking into account that the size of each generator (325 meters) would infarct Don Quixote and that each shovel has a length of 108 meters, its recycling would add up to 10 million tons of recyclable material,

According to

estimates,

between 240 and 450 GW of offshore wind power will be needed by 2050 to prevent a rise in temperatures of more than 1.5 ° C.

In his aspirations, 30% of the energy will come from this type of wind power plants.

At present, 90% of the

market

is led by European companies and in 2020, the old continent increased its offshore wind capacity by 2.9 GW, reaching today more than 5000 wind turbines on its coast ".

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