Winners of Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize Enhance Domestic Recycling Industry With Novel Innovations

Winners of Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize Enhance Domestic Recycling Industry With Novel Innovations

4 Teams Share Their Winding Path Into the Wind Turbine Recycling Industry and Where They Are Headed Next

Across the United States, more than 70,000 wind turbines are powering the nation's wind energy future, supplying more than 10% of the nation's electricity. As these wind turbines near the end of their impressive 30-year lifespans, a new chapter is being written-one that ensures these renewable energy giants can be recycled and contribute to a circular economy long after their service.

Thanks to the winners of the Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize, innovations are paving the way for a future where wind turbines are a cornerstone of both renewable energy and a sustainable economy. The $5.1 million prize, which was launched by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) and is administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, is tackling the challenge of recycling turbine blades and other hard-to-recycle components.

In September 2024, six visionary teams were awarded $600,000 each in cash prizes and technical vouchers for their groundbreaking approaches to advancing wind turbine recycling technologies. Here is how some of these innovators are shaping the future of wind energy recycling and commercializing solutions to grow the U.S. wind turbine recycling ecosystem.

Solving Problems of Significance

Team: Cimentaire (Houston, Texas)
Project: Resin-Bonded Coatings for Concrete

Radical innovation for the betterment of life. That is the vision statement of Jan Beetge's company, AltiSora. When Beetge heard about the Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize, the alignment with his company's vision was clear.

"We wanted to do something that's new and something that's got significant impact," Beetge said. "Something that is to the benefit of communities and the people and the planet."

Beetge, along with his team, Cimentaire, used his extensive experience with adhesives and resins to create a liquid coating for concrete that is made from shredded turbine blade waste. The resulting coating is strong and highly adhesive, enabling it to protect and waterproof concrete.

While Cimentaire's initial plan was to sell their liquid formulation, they also started to explore various real-world applications of the coating and are now making a strategic adjustment to improve their business opportunity.

"We want to forward-integrate and make finished products from our solution that have even more value added and may have more impact," Beetge said. This approach provides a clearer purpose and makes the solution more marketable to a potential customer who can purchase a final product rather than needing to apply the coating themselves. "You need to solve a problem," Beetge explained, "and you need somebody that's willing to pay for that problem to be solved."

Using the formulation to create soundproofing panels, which could dampen noise in communities near busy roads or railways, is just one of Beetge's many ideas for developing a meaningful final product. The coating could also be applied to protect irrigation canals or used as feedstock in 3D impact printing, a method of additive manufacturing that uses kinetic energy to transport and change the size or shape of solid material upon impact.

Beetge is not tied to one solution. "You have to have more than one horse in the race," he said.

Over the 'Valley of Death'

Team: WIND REWIND (Orono, Maine)
Project: Recycled Blades for Large-Format Additive Manufacturing

The members of Team WIND REWIND, who are all affiliated with the Advanced Structures and Composites Center at the University of Maine, were already familiar with the world of wind energy generation and its infrastructure. But the Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize was the first opportunity they had had to address the end of a wind turbine's life cycle.

"We really wanted to tackle this issue regarding end-of-life wind turbine blades and saw the opportunity for the processes that we're using to be part of the solution," said Reed Miller, captain of the WIND REWIND team.

Using their deep knowledge of large-format additive manufacturing (which is using 3D printing to create large objects), the team developed a technology that creates custom feedstocks from decommissioned blades that can then be used for specific manufacturing applications. Their feedstocks, for example, can be used to create modular affordable housing units or diffusers that enhance and extend the life of highway and coastal culverts.

Crucially, competing in the prize generated visibility and excitement that helped WIND REWIND develop partnerships and identify potential customers for their work.

"I have been at the University of Maine for 26 years," said Roberto Lopez-Anido, a member of the team. "But this time, talking about this project with people, the community-it's different. It is a very clear message, very simple, very well understood, and I get a lot of great reception. I think it has a lot of potential."

In September, the team's prize win helped them launch their new corporation, Circular Composite Technologies. A year from now, they hope to have a series of feedstocks perfected for different applications so they can start large-scale demonstrations.

"We've been hearing that some companies confront what's called the 'valley of death'-where you almost hit that commercialization edge but don't make it over the valley," Miller said. "But I think that we are really set up to succeed, and this prize is really something that's going to help propel us over that valley to the other side of actually commercializing."

As they continue their commercialization journey, the team is finding their niche in a circular wind energy economy while contributing to the growth of Maine's advanced manufacturing industry. They see themselves as a link between companies needing to recycle turbine blades and local manufacturers that need high-tech, tailored materials.

"Between now and 2035, we're talking about nearly 8,000 tons of end-of-life blade mass that will need to be managed in Maine," Miller said. "Managing things locally will certainly be a boon for the wind energy industry in the region."

It will be good for the environment, too.

"Keeping Maine natural and beautiful and taking care of it for future generations-that's a huge thing for me, personally," WIND REWIND member Andrew Gifford added. "I think this prize helps provide a win-win solution to an important issue."

More Than a Technology

Team: Critical Materials Recycling (Boone, Iowa)
Project: Domestic Rare Earth Recovery From Wind Turbines Using Acid-Free Dissolution Recycling

Critical Materials Recycling uses their acid-free dissolution recycling technology to recover the rare earth elements from common end-of-life materials like cars and consumer electronics. When the Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize was announced, the team was eager to apply their technology to something new: wind turbine generators.

"It was a very welcome opportunity to be able to get support and funding and resources to utilize these types of materials-wind turbines-here in our home state," said Dan Bina, CEO of Critical Materials Recycling. The company is located in Iowa, a national leader in wind power generation and the second-ranked state in the country in installed wind capacity. Integrating the company's rare earth recycling technology into the wind turbine recycling ecosystem was a natural fit.

Critical Materials Recycling's acid-free dissolution recycling process selectively pulls out the rare earth elements in wind turbine generator magnets-primarily neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium-into a solution and produces a high-purity oxide. That oxide can then be used directly in new magnet production, reducing the need for critical material mining. Critical Materials Recycling is also pursuing a reuse solution in which they reshape the generator magnets for use in industrial actuators.

But Bina is most proud of the partners they brought together through this prize. The team includes not only staff at Critical Materials Recycling but also contributors from the largest wind turbine operator in the state, a company that dismantles and decommissions end-of-life turbines, and a traditional recycler that can process the copper, steel, and other metals in turbine components. Together, this team can process and recycle an entire wind turbine, not just the rare earth materials.

"You can't do anything without a technology," Bina said. "But we also looked at the team the same way. We wouldn't be able to do anything in the real world without this team put together."

Moving forward, the team is initially planning to process three to five generators and demonstrate that their operation is functional on a larger scale. Then, the goal becomes loftier. Iowa's wind industry takes down potentially hundreds of turbines a year depending on the cycle.

"In a year's time the goal would be to have that understanding and really build that confidence that the group can move forward in actual commercial recycling at volume," Bina said.

Opening the Door to Innovation

Team: Fletcher Team (Huntington, West Virginia)
Project: Mobile On-Site Wind Turbine Blade Shredder System

J.H. Fletcher & Co., a manufacturing company in West Virginia, is in the business of manufacturing mobile equipment mainly for the underground mining industry. About three years ago, the president of Fletcher saw a picture of wind turbine blades in a landfill. He asked Bill Kendall, a former employee and now company consultant in charge of new business development, to look into potential solutions for recycling the blades. While outside the company's usual industry of expertise, Kendall was excited to pursue the project and work with local partners to address the environmental problem.

"Our main goal was never to make a fortune," Kendall said. "From day one, my directive was 'Let's do this for the right reasons.'"

As he learned more about wind blade recycling and started tinkering around, Kendall began envisioning creating a piece of mobile equipment that could travel to the location of retired blades and process them on-site. The biggest issue then became how to manage the blades' impressive size. Eventually, one of Kendall's colleagues suggested building a giant hydraulic press and smashing the blades flat, essentially turning them into big sheets of plywood that are easier to shred.

"And that's when the prize opportunity came up," Kendall said. "We said, 'Wow, maybe this really opens the door.' And luckily it did."

Kendall put together a small team to compete in the first stage of the prize to develop their concept for a wind turbine material shredder that is capable of shredding a complete blade on-site without sectioning. The resulting fiber cuttings are then easier and less expensive to transport to facilities that can use the material to create new products. In addition to being mobile, Fletcher Team's equipment is also fully enclosed to catch fiberglass debris and can be operated from up to 300 feet away, reducing risks to workers and the environment.

However, despite three years of work and a promising system, the project was becoming too expensive to continue. Winning the first phase of the prize in January 2024 changed that.

"If we hadn't gotten the funding, this project quite frankly probably would have died," Kendall said. With $75,000 in hand, the team was able to move forward with in-depth, large-scale testing and gain credibility and support for further development. "People came out of the woodwork and said, 'We'll help you,'" Kendall said.

Now, the team has a customer lined up to lease their first complete unit, which they plan to have built and out in the field within 12 months. And though they have plans to build additional units over the next five years, Kendall is equally excited about the possibility to make even bigger contributions to the recycling ecosystem.

"If you look at the total waste stream of thermoset plastics, wind turbine blades are about 6 or 7% of that waste stream," Kendall said. "You look at cars, boats, yachts, airplanes, helicopters … if we're only scratching 6% of that market, there's got to be a huge potential for other iterations of this type of equipment."

In September 2025, a showcase event for the Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize is planned to take place at the annual RE+ conference. The six prize winners will have the opportunity to present work completed since the close of the prize and demonstrate the commercial potential of their technologies. Follow the Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize on HeroX, the official competition platform, to receive updates about the event.

The Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize is funded by DOE's Wind Energy Technologies Office. It is part of DOE's American-Made program and is administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.