Avangrid, a sustainable energy company and member of the Iberdrola Group, recently announced that it donated 300 pounds of decommissioned wind turbine blades to Windloop, a startup comprised of Yale University students. Common challenges for wind turbine blade recycling due to the high costs of transporting the blades and the difficulty extracting blade materials (glass fiber and resin) in such a way that they can be reused.
Windloop’s strategy for recycling wind turbine blades has two parts that address these challenges. The first is an on-site blade shredder which reduces transportation costs from wind farm to recycling facility. The second part of the process uses green chemistry principles to effectively separate the fibers and resin in the blades. Windloop’s novel solution can recover over 90% of turbine blade material and 97% of the overall value of the turbine blades.
Read more about the project here: Avangrid Partners with Startup WindLoop to Test Innovative Process for Wind Turbine Blade Recycling – Avangrid