Acciona, Acciona Energía and RenerCycle have announced the construction of Waste2Fiber, a wind blade recycling plant in Lumbier (Navarra), Spain. The facility will be operational in 2025 and will create over 100 jobs.
The project brings together Acciona’s experience in composite materials, Acciona Energía’s access to end-of-life wind turbine blades, as well as RenerCycle’s activities in the decommissioning of wind turbines. The Waste2Fiber plant has been awarded €5.3 million in funding from the Spanish Government’s Proyectos Estratégicos para la Recuperación y Transformación Económica (PERTE) program and has the support of the Navarra Government.
The application of thermal treatment technology in recycling composite materials found in wind turbine blades relies on maintaining moderate and controlled temperature and atmospheric conditions. This approach aims to preserve the properties of the reinforcement fibers, allow the reuse of organic fractions, and convert the composite materials into secondary raw materials. These recycled materials possess high added value and can be effectively employed in new production processes, exhibiting a quality comparable to that of virgin raw materials.
Construction of the recycling facility will begin in the first half of 2024. The plant will have a processing capacity of 6,000 tons of material per year, covering all stages of the production process, from the dismantling and fragmentation of the blades to the output and quality control of the final products.
