German renewable energy company RWE has selected Siemens Gamesa's offshore wind turbines with recyclable blades for its Sofia offshore wind farm in the UK.
Siemens Gamesa said it would supply 44 SG 14-222 DD (14MW) wind turbines with 132 recyclable blades.
The order comes after, in 2022, RWE became the first commercial, large-scale offshore developer to install Siemens Gamesa’s "RecyclableBlade" technology, with several blades used in the Kaskasi offshore wind power project in the German North Sea.
The Sofia project will utilize "RecyclableBlades" measuring 108 meters long, representing the first deployment of this variant. The Kaskasi project utilizes 81-meter-long Recyclable Blades on the selected SG 8.0-167 DD offshore wind turbines.
"Utilizing Siemens Gamesa’s RecyclableBlade technology enables the full reclamation of the blade’s components at the end of the product’s lifespan: the resin, fiberglass, and wood, among others, are separated using a mild acid solution," Siemens Gamesa said.
According to the offshore wind turbine maker, these recyclable blades will be manufactured at Siemens Gamesa’s Hull factory, which built the first "RecyclableBlades" for the Kaskasi offshore wind power project.
Back in 2021, when Siemens Gamesa first introduced the recyclable wind turbine blades, the company said its goal was to make not just blades, but also turbines fully recyclable by 2040.
As for the Sofia offshore wind farm, it will have a capacity of 1.4GW and is expected to generate enough electricity for the equivalent of up to 1.2 million UK households.