Day: October 3, 2021

Like many good things in life, wind turbines don’t last forever. But disposing of retired turbine blades has become a headache for the renewable energy industry. They’re made of materials that can’t easily be recycled.  But from cycle shelters to bridges, life-expired blades are finding innovative new uses around the world. And the first 100% recyclable turbine blades have just been produced in Denmark.  Up to 85% of an existing wind turbine, including the steel mast and electrical components made of metals like copper, can be recycled, but not the turbine blades, which already account for 10% of Europe’s fibre-reinforced composite material waste.

RWE, Germany’s largest power producer, announced it’s investing $21 billion in the UK by 2030 to accelerate its transition. The announcement comes as CEO, Markus Krebber is taking part in the Global Investment Summit in London. Firstly, the announced investment includes the already announced investment of five billion pounds into two offshore wind parks; one of which started the construction phase back in June. Those are the Triton Knoll and the Sofia offshore wind parks, the latter being the one that began construction recently. Indeed, much of the activity of RWE in the UK focus on offshore wind. Apart from the projects mentioned above, the company is currently developing four new offshore wind farms, representing a combined potential installed capacity of around 2.6 GW.