Re-Wind: Collaborative US–Ireland: Reuse and Recycling of Decommissioned Composite Material Wind Turbine Blades. Funding Programme: SFI & US National Science Foundation. Total project value and duration: €0.4m, September 2018 to December 2021. MTU Package Commenced February 2020.

Main Focus

Challenge: driving innovation in the re-use of decommissioned wind turbine blades. With the rapid development of wind energy technology in the past 15 years comes a new conundrum: how to dispose of the non-biodegradable blades in current wind turbines in a sustainable way.  The objective of the Re-Wind project is to compare sustainable end–of–life (EOL) repurposing and recycling strategies for composite material wind turbine blades using Data Driven Structural Modelling in a Geographic Information Science (GIS) platform coupled with environmental, economic and social Life– Cycle Sustainability Assessments (LCSA).

Current MTU Work:

Design of a Pedestrian Bridge using Decommissioned Wind Blades

Future MTU Work:

Construction and testing of the Pedestrian Bridge in the Structures Lab and incorporation of the bridge in to the Midleton – Youghal Greenway

Partners

Project Partners (Georgia Tech, CUNY, QUB, UCC, MTU); Lead Partner: Georgia Tech

MTU Project Lead and Team:

K. Ruane

Link:

https://www.re-wind.info/