GE installs world’s first spiral-welded wind turbine tower
The new construction technique produces wind turbine towers 10 times faster while using up to 80% less manpower. Ultimately, this makes wind turbines much more affordable and cost-effective.
The new construction technique produces wind turbine towers 10 times faster while using up to 80% less manpower. Ultimately, this makes wind turbines much more affordable and cost-effective.
Recyclable wind turbine blades just moved from concept to reality: a French-led consortium has built a 62-meter prototype in Ponferrada, Spain, designed to be fully broken down and reused at the end of its life. The secret is a thermoplastic resin called Elium, which can be chemically separated from its glass fibers so both materials return to the manufacturing stream as good as new. Engineers will now put the blade through structural lifetime testing in Denmark, with the recycling process itself validated soon after. If the approach proves commercially viable, it could close one of renewable energy’s most persistent loops — turning the blades that power our clean-energy future from a looming waste problem into a genuine circular success story.
One University of Cambridge study suggests that there will be 43 million tonnes of blade waste around the world by 2050.