Producing clean energy is no longer enough for renewable sources to fully meet sustainability criteria. As their use grows and becomes an integral part of the everyday energy system, the questions move further: how do we store energy, how do we use it efficiently—and, perhaps most importantly—what happens to the technology once it reaches the end of its operational life?
I’ve written multiple times about wind turbines, their components, and their potential to be sustainably utilized even after they stop operating. So I’ll touch on that only briefly here: research shows that almost 90 percent of a wind turbine’s total mass can be recycled using existing waste-management methods. But turbine blades remain a real challenge—complex composite materials make them difficult to separate and recycle. Still, this shouldn’t be an excuse. If we truly want renewables to be sustainable, we must find solutions.
On its Circularity Hub platform, WindEurope has showcased several concrete and inspiring examples of how wind turbine blades can be given new value through four main approaches: reuse, repurposing, recycling, and recovery. These methods cover everything—from repairing and selling used components, to creatively repurposing blades into infrastructure or new products, to processing them into raw materials, or recovering energy and resources when recycling is not yet feasible.
The first example I’ll share in this blog comes from the Netherlands, where the company Blade–Made transforms entire turbine blades into a modular noise-reduction wall. The same company also reshapes blades into durable playgrounds and urban furniture—segments of blades become climbing structures, seesaws, and benches, all while keeping the recognizable form and aesthetics of the original blade. Children can now play on them without even knowing they once powered a wind turbine.
In Spain, ACCIONA Energía, in cooperation with the fashion brand El Ganso, uses recycled blade material to produce sneakers, and in Australia the company created the world’s first surfboard made from wind turbine blades. The first ten prototypes were handcrafted on the Gold Coast.
When it comes to recycling, Spain is home to EnergyLoop, a specialized blade-recycling plant that processes composite materials which then become raw materials for construction, the automotive sector, aviation, and similar industries.
The recovery method is the least preferred option and is used when recycling simply isn’t possible—for example, due to the complexity of the material or technical limitations. In this process, blades are shredded and then used as fuel or feedstock in industrial processes, under controlled and closed-loop conditions. This prevents landfilling, but the material can no longer retain its original structural value.
One example comes from Finland, where Kuusakoski Recycling converts spent blades into raw material for cement production. The blades are shredded using advanced technology that poses no risk to people or the environment, and the resulting material is used in cement kilns. According to a recent WindEurope report, this approach significantly reduces CO₂ emissions in both cement production and waste management. Each ton of processed composite waste saves up to one ton of CO₂ compared to traditional incineration methods.
Recovery is a practical solution when other methods are not feasible, but the future of circular wind energy ultimately depends on recycling and reusing components.
Katarina Vuinac
