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Wind Turbine Decommissioning: Dismantling, Demolition, Recycling, Reuse and Repurposing
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Wind Turbine Decommissioning: Dismantling, Demolition, Recycling, Reuse and Repurposing

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Engineering and Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 January 2025 | Viewed by 8403

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lawrence C. Bank

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology, 245 4th St NW, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA
Interests: fiber reinforced composite materials; construction materials; wind blade materials
Dr. Paul Leahy

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Engineering & Architecture, University College Cork, T12 E138 Cork, Ireland
Interests: repurposing wind turbine blades; wind energy; green hydrogen; climate change

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to announce a new Special Issue, entitled “Wind Turbine Decommissioning: Dismantling, Demolition, Recycling, Reuse and Repurposing”, of the Sustainability journal.

Thousands of wind turbines are at or near their end-of-life due to reaching their design lifetimes, functional obsolescence, or  economic obsolescence and are currently being taken out of service (also known as decommissioning) or retrofitted.  This may apply to components including the reinforced concrete foundation, steel or concrete towers, the generator and gearbox, and fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) blades as well as the site electrical infrastructure. Sustainable approaches to dealing with all of these elements are critical for the future of the wind power industry. There is a dearth of basic research on how all aspects of the decommissioning process take place. The only aspect that has been covered in some detail is that of blade end-of-life and strategies for dealing with blade waste. Most blades are sent to unsustainable landfill disposal at this time. A small minority are sent to material recyclers, including cement kiln operators for incineration as fuel and raw materials. Transparency in this field is thus paramount.

The aim of the Special Issue is to report on the current research, design and implementation of all aspects of wind turbine decommissioning. Sustainable approaches, including circular economy opportunities in decommissioning, need to be published so that the industry undertaking these activities understands the pros and cons of different decommissioning pathways for all the wind turbine components. There is almost no research published on decommissioning techniques used for foundations and towers, one of which is explosive demolition. Discussions on these topics are often dismissed as these components are made of concrete and/or steel and are assumed to be recycled responsibly. Little has been reported on life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC), techno economic analysis (TEA) and social impacts of decommissioning activities.

In this Special Issue, original research articles, case study articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Demolition of wind turbine foundations and sustainable recycling/disposal pathways.
  • Demolition or dismantling of wind turbine towers and sustainable recycling/remanufacturing or repurposing pathways.
  • Dismantling or removal of wind turbine generators and gear boxes and sustainable pathways.
  • Removal of fiber composite wind turbine blades and sustainable recycling, reuse or repurposing pathways of all blade materials (not only the FRP materials).
  • Removal of (mostly) fiber composite wind turbine nacelles and hub cones and sustainable recycling, reuse or repurposing pathways of the materials.
  • Value chains for end-of-life wind turbine components and materials.

In all of the above topics, research and reviews should address life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle costing (LCC), techno economic analysis (TEA) and social aspects of decommissioning activities.

Dr. Lawrence C. Bank
Dr. Paul Leahy
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • wind turbine
  • decommissioning
  • dismantling
  • demolition
  • recycling
  • reuse and repurposing
  • life cycle assessment (LCA)
  • life cycle costing (LCC)
  • techno economic analysis (TEA)

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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17 pages, 3729 KiB  
Article
A Holistic and Circular Approach for Managing End-of-Service Wind Turbine Blades
by Alann André, Thomas Bru, Abdul Ghafoor Abbasi, Sugandh Sinha, Stephanie Nunes, Magdalena Juntikka, Karolina Kazmierczak, Nils Ólafur Egilsson, Gustav Frid, Marcin Sobczyk and Reza Haghani
Sustainability 2024, 16(17), 7858; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16177858 - 9 Sep 2024
Viewed by 942
Abstract
This paper aims to define the challenges and requirements necessary for the holistic management of wind turbine blades at the end of their service (EoS). Conducted within the Swedish research project Circublade, this study focuses on Sweden, although many challenges and findings are [...] Read more.
This paper aims to define the challenges and requirements necessary for the holistic management of wind turbine blades at the end of their service (EoS). Conducted within the Swedish research project Circublade, this study focuses on Sweden, although many challenges and findings are applicable to other countries. Various alternatives for managing EoS wind turbine blades exist at different levels of market maturity, but this paper specifically focuses on repurposing the blades into new products. The development of three concept designs—short-span pedestrian bridges, façade elements for building applications, and noise barriers for roads and railways—has been explored, along with aspects related to material sourcing, logistics, and implementation. For material sourcing, a digital platform containing blade data and tools to facilitate repurposing has been developed. An environmental evaluation of the different concepts highlights the significant impact of transportation on the overall environmental footprint, underscoring the necessity of a holistic approach to managing EoS blades. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wind Turbine Decommissioning: Dismantling, Demolition, Recycling, Reuse and Repurposing)
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23 pages, 5779 KiB  
Article
Glass Fibre Composites Recycling Using the Fluidised Bed: A Comparative Study into the Carbon Footprint in the UK
by Kyle Pender and Liu Yang
Sustainability 2024, 16(3), 1016; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16031016 - 24 Jan 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2177
Abstract
The UK has no established process for recycling waste glass fibre-reinforced thermosets that are widely used within wind blade structures. Consequently, these materials are typically disposed of in landfills or undergo energy recovery in waste facilities. This study investigates the carbon footprint of [...] Read more.
The UK has no established process for recycling waste glass fibre-reinforced thermosets that are widely used within wind blade structures. Consequently, these materials are typically disposed of in landfills or undergo energy recovery in waste facilities. This study investigates the carbon footprint of the fluidised bed process for recycling glass fibre composite waste, considering the present and future scenarios of composite waste management in the UK. The impact was compared to conventional disposal routes and other prominent recycling technologies, such as cement kiln co-processing and mechanical recycling, by developing energy and material flow models for each waste treatment strategy. Variables, such as the type of waste, the quantity of recycling facilities in the UK, and waste haulage distance, were examined to inform the lowest impact deployment of recycling technologies. Cement kiln co-processing, mechanical, and fluidised bed recycling technologies reduced the global warming potential of processing wind blade waste compared with conventional disposal routes, with impacts of −0.25, −1.25, and −0.57 kg CO2e/kg GRP waste, respectively. Mechanical recycling had the lowest global warming potential resulting from low greenhouse gas emissions associated with the process itself and potentially high offsets by replacing glass fibre in the production of moulding compound. Composite wind turbine blade waste was found to be a particularly promising feedstock for the fluidised bed process due to relatively low resin content diminishing direct greenhouse gas emissions during thermal decomposition, as well as high material recovery offsets due to the high glass fibre content of this waste stream. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wind Turbine Decommissioning: Dismantling, Demolition, Recycling, Reuse and Repurposing)
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Review

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19 pages, 2317 KiB  
Review
Sustainability Implications of Current Approaches to End-of-Life of Wind Turbine Blades—A Review
by Emma L. Delaney, Paul G. Leahy, Jennifer M. McKinley, T. Russell Gentry, Angela J. Nagle, Jeffrey Elberling and Lawrence C. Bank
Sustainability 2023, 15(16), 12557; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151612557 - 18 Aug 2023
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 4516
Abstract
In recent years, the sustainability of wind power has been called into question because there are currently no truly sustainable solutions to the problem of how to deal with the non-biodegradable fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite wind blades (sometimes referred to as “wings”) that [...] Read more.
In recent years, the sustainability of wind power has been called into question because there are currently no truly sustainable solutions to the problem of how to deal with the non-biodegradable fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite wind blades (sometimes referred to as “wings”) that capture the wind energy. The vast majority of wind blades that have reached their end-of-life (EOL) currently end up in landfills (either in full-sized pieces or pulverized into smaller pieces) or are incinerated. The problem has come to a head in recent years since many countries (especially in the EU) have outlawed, or expect to outlaw in the near future, one or both of these unsustainable and polluting disposal methods. An increasing number of studies have addressed the issue of EOL blade “waste”; however, these studies are generally of little use since they make predictions that do not account for the manner in which wind blades are decommissioned (from the time the decision is made to retire a turbine (or a wind farm) to the eventual disposal or recycling of all of its components). This review attempts to lay the groundwork for a better understanding of the decommissioning process by defining how the different EOL solutions to the problem of the blade “waste” do or do not lead to “sustainable decommissioning”. The hope is that by better defining the different EOL solutions and their decommissioning pathways, a more rigorous research base for future studies of the wind blade EOL problem will be possible. This paper reviews the prior studies on wind blade EOL and divides them into a number of categories depending on the focus that the original authors chose for their EOL assessment. This paper also reviews the different methods chosen by researchers to predict the quantities of future blade waste and shows that depending on the choice of method, predictions can be different by orders of magnitude, which is not good as this can be exploited by unscrupulous parties. The paper then reviews what different researchers define as the “recycling” of wind blades and shows that depending on the definition, the percentage of how much material is actually recycled is vastly different, which is also not good and can be exploited by unscrupulous parties. Finally, using very recent proprietary data (December 2022), the paper illustrates how the different definitions and methods affect predictions on global EOL quantities and recycling rates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Wind Turbine Decommissioning: Dismantling, Demolition, Recycling, Reuse and Repurposing)
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