Fibre Wind Turbine Blades

The EU-backed REFRESH project recently demonstrated that glass fibres recovered from old wind turbine blades can be reused to make new blade components, opening the door to greater circularity in the wind energy sector. Using fibres reclaimed through a thermal recycling process, project partners produced a nonwoven glass fibre mat and successfully incorporated it into a new blade section without altering standard production methods.

The recycled fibres were turned into a mat using an airlay and thermobonding process, which is well-suited to recycled materials that can become more fragile during recovery. When used in vacuum infusion, the recycled mat delivered mechanical performance close to that of virgin fibre products.

To demonstrate real-world applicability, the material was tested in a blade-tip section produced by ÉireComposites, enabling a direct comparison of recycled and virgin fibres within the same component.

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