“We need sustainable and secure domestic wind energy supply chain to achieve our climate goals,” said Alejandro Moreno, Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “By creating new cost-effective recycling streams for key wind turbine materials, this prize will help ensure wind energy can continue to rapidly expand across the United States.”
About 85%–90% of the mass of a wind turbine is made of materials that can already be commercially recycled. The bulk of the unrecycled materials is composed of fiber-reinforced composites (carbon fiber and fiberglass). These materials can be found in various forms in the blades and the cover for the hub that connects the blades to the wind turbine.
The wind energy manufacturing industry also depends on critical minerals, such as rare earth elements (including neodymium and dysprosium), which do not currently have domestic commercial-scale recycling options.
The DOE hopes to expand the nation’s ongoing efforts to advance wind turbine materials recycling, such as NREL's thermoplastic resin research for wind turbine blades.
The announcement marks the opening of the first of two phases in the Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize. In the first phase, Initiate!, DOE invites participants to present innovative technologies that have previously not been applied to recycling of wind energy system materials, as well as technologies that could substantially improve existing wind material recycling processes.
During the second phase, Accelerate!, competitors will demonstrate prototypes of their technologies.
The prize also seeks to promote collaboration among wind energy entrepreneurs, inventors, researchers, and experts from DOE’s national laboratories, such as NREL, to accelerate the development and commercialization of wind turbine materials recycling technologies.
