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A Chinese wind turbine maker just debuted Asia’s first recyclable blade

MingYang Smart Energy has launched a huge turbine blade made of over 95% recyclable materials – the first of its kind in Asia.

MingYang says it’s the “first Chinese OEM to offer recyclable blades.” Spanish-German maker Siemens Gamesa and Danish company Vestas have also launched wind turbine blade recycling schemes.

The 75.7-meter-long (248-foot-long) prototype recyclable blade was made using Taiwan-headquartered wind power material supplier Swancor’s EzCiclo recyclable thermosetting resin. It has recyclable epoxy pultrusion plates with a recyclable foam core.

EzCiclo can be recycled and degraded with Swancor’s CleaVER recycling technology, and the recycled material can be used in other industries, according to a MingYang post on LinkedIn. Swancor explains:

The wind turbine blade composite parts made of “EzCiclo” can be recycled and degraded via “CleaVER” technology in the end-of-life. The waste is turned into recycled fibers and oligomers [it’s a molecule], and the recycled fibers can be reused to [make] glass fiber or carbon fiber composites.

Zhongshan-headquartered MingYang started wind turbine production in 2007. It’s currently developing the world’s largest wind turbine with a capacity of 18 MW.

China is the world’s leading country when it comes to wind power generation. According to clean energy think tank Ember, China generated 46% more wind power than all of Europe, the world’s second-largest wind market, in 2022.

Read more: This Chinese offshore wind turbine will be able to power 90K homes

Photo: MingYang Smart Energy



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Avatar for Michelle Lewis Michelle Lewis

Michelle Lewis is a writer and editor on Electrek and an editor on DroneDJ, 9to5Mac, and 9to5Google. She lives in White River Junction, Vermont. She has previously worked for Fast Company, the Guardian, News Deeply, Time, and others. Message Michelle on Twitter or at michelle@9to5mac.com. Check out her personal blog.