Ørsted teams up with Northern Irish firm for local blade recycling

Danish clean energy group Ørsted A/S (CPH:ORSTED) said today it has partnered with Northern Irish company Plaswire to recycle onshore wind turbine blades.

The County Armagh-based company will help the wind major recycle blades from its onshore wind farms in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, where it operates 378 MW of onshore wind assets.

In a recently completed pilot project, three blades from a decommissioned turbine from Ørsted’s Owenreagh wind farm in County Tyrone were successfully recycled and transformed into Plaswire's smart RX Polymer, a material used in the construction industry.

“Through a pilot with Plaswire, we’re delighted to have developed a cost-efficient method to ensure that 100% of our wind turbine blades can be sustainably recycled,” said Ray O’Connell, director of operations at Ørsted UK and Ireland. O’Connell added that as some of Ørsted’s onshore fleet near their end of life, it is happy to partner with a local company which can recycle the blades without adding extra carbon costs from international shipping.

In 2021, Ørsted committed to either reuse, recycle or recover all of the blades in its global onshore and offshore wind farm portfolio upon decommissioning.

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