GE produces world's largest recyclable wind turbine blade
Source: https://newatlas.com/energy/ge-worlds-largest-recyclable-wind-turbine-blade
GE continues sharpening its toolkit in a bid to built the future of sustainable energy Through its massive wind turbines and innovative offshore designs, and a newly unveiled turbine blade shows how that can extend to the materials used. A consortium led by the company has manufactured the world's largest thermoplastic blade, designed to serve as full-scale example of a fully recyclable wind turbine blade. Wind energy has become an important pillar in our fossil fuel-free future, but that doesn't mean it comes without environmental concerns of its own. The thermoset composites making up today's turbine blades cannot be recycled, and one University of Cambridge study suggests that there will be 43 million tonnes of blade waste around the world by 2050. The Zero Waste Blade Research Project is working on more sustainable materials in the form of thermoplastic composites.