ReBladeNet – Partnership for Wind Turbine Blade Recycling

Wind power plays an important role in the energy transition, but as increasing numbers of wind turbines reach the end of their service life, the volume of decommissioned turbine blades is also growing. The blades consist largely of glass-fibre composite, a durable material that is technically challenging to recycle and for which established circular value chains are still lacking.

In Sweden, the volume of end-of-life wind turbine blades is expected to increase significantly over the coming decades. This creates a need for solutions that are not only technically feasible, but also economically viable and supported by stakeholders across the entire value chain.

From individual solutions to a shared commitment

ReBladeNet addresses this challenge by bringing together wind farm owners, industry associations, recycling companies, and businesses developing new applications for the material.

The project aims to lay the foundation for a Plastics Contract for end-of-life wind turbine blades – a voluntary joint commitment that defines ambitions, responsibilities, and targets for a more circular approach to managing glass-fibre composites.

The work includes, among other things:

• develop shared goals and commitments for stakeholders across the value chain,
• identify and strengthen circular solutions for reuse and recycling,
• test and validate the Plastics Contract together with industry stakeholders,
• create the conditions for the approach to continue and scale up beyond the end of the project.

In this way, ReBladeNet aims to help move from individual initiatives towards a more integrated market, where end-of-life wind turbine blades can increasingly be viewed as a resource for new products and value chains.

The project builds on knowledge gained from the Solar and Wind Policy Innovation Lab (SVPI-Lab), where technical, economic, organisational, and policy-related barriers to circular material flows in the wind energy sector have been analysed.