Current and potential decommissioning scenarios for end-of-life composite wind blades

Contrary to other wind turbine components such as steel towers, concrete foundations and the high value metals used in generator linings, whose end-of-life is properly described in life cycle assessment (LCA) studies, composite blades have proven to be the sustainability blind spot of wind energy systems. The reason for this is that end-of-life management of composite wind blades is a complex engineering problem which depends on the actual design of the blade, its material composition, the availability of recycling technology, legislation and requisite infrastructure, as well as the economics of the process itself—including the logistics of transportation, dismantling, etc. This paper offers a comprehensive analysis of current and potential decommissioning scenarios for end-of-life composite wind blades. Based on 40, in depth, semi-structured interviews with North American and European wind energy experts and a meta-analysis of 52 LCAs of wind energy this paper argues that over approximately the next 5 years, the wind industry will face a significant challenge: as the focus on sustainability engineering and product stewardship shifts the waste disposal responsibility to original equipment and component manufacturers, wind system LCAs may include—and may increasingly become more important in determining—end-of-life scenarios for composite blade waste. It is still too early to ascertain whether LCA will determine the future of composite wind blade recycling by either promoting or legitimizing a certain scenario over another. Nevertheless, as LCAs becoming increasingly more popular in both wind energy and composite recycling, a likely conclusion is that as more economically viable recycling options become available, LCAs will examine the decommissioning phase of used and damaged blades in more detail.