Keaton PetersThe U.S. Department of Energy wants to make it easier to recycle wind turbines. With a new $20 million funding program, the Wind Turbine Technology Recycling Funding Opportunity, the DOE will support projects developing solutions for recycling hard-to-process materials like fiber-reinforced composites and rare earth element magnets.
To accomplish this, the program focuses on three key areas: developing alternate materials, scaling commercial recycling and creating industry standards.
The funding comes from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and will be administered through DOE’s Wind Energy Technologies Office. While about 90% of wind turbine materials can currently be recycled economically, the remaining components – primarily turbine blades and generators containing rare earth elements – present significant technical and economic barriers to recycling.
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As the wind energy sector continues rapid growth to meet clean energy goals, the challenge of sustainably managing turbine components has taken on increased urgency. With more turbines expected to be decommissioned in coming years and manufacturing waste increasing from new production, developing cost-effective recycling solutions has become a priority for maintaining the industry’s environmental benefits.
The first funding area focuses on developing sustainable wind turbine components through innovative designs and materials. This track will support alternatives to current blade and generator designs that are inherently easier to recycle. Companies can pursue innovations in areas like enhanced recyclability of manufacturing waste, simplified maintenance and repair processes and improved component reuse. Projects must demonstrate both sustainability advantages and commercial viability of their innovations.
The second topic area targets the demonstration of material processing technologies that can be applied at a commercial scale. With an increasing number of turbines approaching end-of-life, there’s a growing need for cost-effective recycling processes. This track will fund projects showing they can cost-effectively process these materials at scales relevant to the U.S. wind industry, addressing both end-of-life products and factory waste streams.
The third funding area aims to overcome a key industry barrier by developing standards for recycled materials. DOE will fund the creation of a research collaborative, led by an impartial organization like a national lab or university, to establish certification standards and testing methodologies for recycled wind turbine materials. The group will bring together research organizations, recycling companies, manufacturers, wind plant developers and potential secondary market users to ensure standards meet industry requirements for adopting recycled materials.
For companies interested in the funding opportunity, DOE is facilitating team formation through a partner matching system on the EERE Exchange website.
Full applications are due by February 11, 2025, with selection notifications and negotiations expected in the spring and summer of 2025.
Photo courtesy Cjp24, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
