The challenge
How can circular economy principles be embedded into design practices to eliminate production waste and enable disassembly for repair, reuse or remanufacture?
In this third wave of activity, we will develop robust guidelines to incorporate circularity in design, ensuring that wind turbine blades can be repaired, re-used, remanufactured, and recycled more efficiently and cost effectively.
A new approach to wind turbine blade design
Creating a circular design process which encourages reuse means new design practices and standards will need to be adopted. We will demonstrate the benefits of novel blade structure design that reduces material usage and facilitates disassembly. Design practices which increase operational life and reduce operations and maintenance costs via structural health monitoring and straightforward repair processes will also be presented.
In-service monitoring
As well as design for disassembly, our guidelines will introduce design opportunities to preserve value in the blade to reduce cost over time and extend their lifetime.
Creating a supply chain
To scale up our work, our team will seed a supply chain and begin to develop the broader strategies to enable remanufacture, reuse or repair in the wider industry.
