Vestas secures another U.S. repowering order, looks ahead to wind blade recyclability

Vestas-American Wind Technology (Portland, Ore., U.S.) has announced a 158-megawatt (MW) order to repower three undisclosed projects in the U.S. The order consists of 72 V120-2.2 MW turbines for the three projects. The new order adds to five others announced this past summer for the U.S (read, “Secured orders from Vestas power US wind economy”).

This particular order includes supply, delivery and commissioning of the turbines, as well as a 10-year active output management 5000 (AOM 5000) service agreement, designed to ensure optimized performance of the asset. Turbine deliveries for each project are expected to begin in Q4 2023 with commissioning scheduled for the Q4 2024. The customer and projects are undisclosed.

Vestas has two North American manufacturing facilities in Brighton and Windsor, Colo., U.S., specializing in nacelles and wind blades, respectively. In 2022, the company spent $1.6 billion across the U.S. supply chain with more than 1,200 suppliers and $120 million across 200-plus suppliers in Canada to support the production, construction and operations of its turbine fleet.

Components from Vestas’ two factories are used primarily in North America, as well as being exported to Mexico, Uruguay, Brazil and Europe.

From production to end of life

While wind blade production is important, so too is considering where they will go at their end of life. Vestas told CW that it has a goal of producing fully recyclable blades by 2030 and producing zero-waste turbines by 2040. Today, Vestas wind turbines are, on average, 85% recyclable.

“With a long history of wind energy in the U.S., some turbines are reaching their end of life, and Vestas is working to ensure these components do not end up in landfills,” says a Vestas spokesperson. “The US Blade Recycling Program shows the action we are taking right now to responsibly dispose of legacy blades while our full circularity solution is being developed/built out.”

A recently launched blade circularity initiative, and a coalition of industry and academic leaders led by Vestas, are working to develop a new technology to make blades more recyclable (read “Vestas unveils circularity solution to end landfill for turbine blades” for more info). Last year, Vestas launched a blade recycling partnership solution for several wind farms across the U.S. where local recycling infrastructure is robust. The company is looking to scale up this blade recycling partnership solution offering.