China - August 26, 2024

Chinese manufacturers give retired wind turbines new life

(Voice_over)

China is developing its recycling industry for parts gleaned from used wind energy equipment.

Typically, wind turbines consist of about 85 percent steel, 10 percent fiberglass, and five percent copper and aluminum, with fiberglass amongst the most difficult to recycle due to its many ingredients.

To solve this problem, a company in east China's Shandong Province is reusing fiberglass blades for other turbines after cutting them with the help of a self-developed hydraulic robot.

(Sound_bite)

Zhang Min, General manager, Jerry Environmental Protection Technology Company:

"Through program control and automatic conveying systems, we achieve high levels of mechanized automation to replace the original manual operation, doubling cutting efficiency and addressing the dust problem with hydraulic cutting."

(Voice_over)

A company in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, meanwhile, has developed a way to recycle wind turbine blades into pallets and building templates.

The fiberglass blades are turned into environmentally friendly products that are tough, waterproof and weather resistant.

On a larger scale, the country hopes their wind and solar equipment recycling programs will help reduce their reliance on foreign raw material suppliers.

(Sound_bite)

Cheng Gangqi, Director, Wind and Solar Equipment Recycling Committee, China National Resources Recycling Association:

"We recycled 300,000 kilowatts of wind power systems in the first half of 2024. These recycled wind turbines produced about 70 tons of copper, over 300 tons of aluminum, over 2,000 tons of composite materials, and over 20,000 tons of scrap steel. The effective recycling of these materials has reduced our reliance on foreign raw material suppliers and has reduced carbon emissions in raw materials production.”

(Voice_over)

According to the Brussels-based Global Wind Energy Council, China is the world leader in wind turbine production capacity, having produced 60 percent of the total last year. Europe and the U.S. meanwhile, produced 19 and 9 percent respectively.

[Restriction: No access Chinese mainland]