«R3POWER» Project

The R3POWER project is presented as a comprehensive, reliable, and robust initiative for the “comprehensive circular repowering” of wind farms. The project comes at a critical time, as almost half of European wind turbines are expected to reach the end of their useful life in 2030, generating up to 20,000 tons of waste per year, mainly composed of concrete and steel, materials with established recycling chains, including also blades made of 67% composite materials that are difficult to separate and recycle. Although there are mechanical, thermochemical and chemical recycling initiatives, none have yet reached the stage of industrial maturity that would allow for the recovery of high-quality fibres or composites in an economically and environmentally viable manner.

This problem is being exacerbated by the European decarbonization policies that aim to cover half of Europe’s electricity demand with renewable energy sources by 2025. It has been deemed essential to repower existing wind farms and prevent new wind turbines from reproducing the same waste pattern. Although research into sustainable, recyclable, and repairable materials is advancing, it still struggles to match the performance of traditional synthetic composites.

The sector, therefore, needs a disruptive change that combines circularity, efficiency, and reduced environmental impact. In this context, artificial intelligence is emerging as a cross-cutting tool capable of accelerating the industrial implementation of innovative technologies, optimizing recycling and recovery processes, and improving predictive management of components to extend their useful life.

Thus, the strategies to be addressed in the project are:

  1. Waste recovery through reuse by diagnosing, reconditioning, and monitoring of foundations, towers, and electrical and mechanical components.
  2. Waste recovery through recycling and revaluation, applying advanced technologies to all wind turbine blade recycling streams.
  3. Waste prevention through new materials, both synthetic and bio-based, designed to be easily recyclable and repairable during operation and at the end of their useful life.

These three strategies will be jointly validated in an eco-designed demonstration wind turbine with an output capacity of between 600 and 800 kW. The turbine will incorporate reused foundations, towers, and electrical and mechanical components, as well as blades made from the most promising recyclable and repairable composites developed in the project. The turbine will be monitored in a real environment and evaluated from techno-economic, environmental, and social perspectives against traditional repowering solutions and all the alternatives proposed in the three circular strategies.

The R3POWER project is a comprehensive response to the challenge of sustainable repowering, combining the reuse of existing infrastructure, advanced material recycling, zero-waste revaluation, and the development of new circular materials. Supported by artificial intelligence, its approach seeks to minimize environmental and economic impact, offering a transformative model for the future of the wind power sector.

An interdisciplinary consortium comprising eight companies has been formed to carry out the project: NORVENTO (leader), RENERCYCLE, TEMHA, GIRAWIND, ACTECO, HI-IBERIA, AEROBLADE, and AEROX, as well as four public and private research organizations: CETIM, AIMEN, UVA, and CIEMAT.

The project was awarded public funding from the Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI) through the 2024 “Science and Innovation Missions – Transmissions” call for proposals. The project is part of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan and the Next Generation EU program, and it has a total budget of €6,867,956.00.

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