Denmark-based Continuum is planning to build six industrial-scale wind turbine recycling factories across Europe, backed by investment from the Danish venture capital firm Climentum Capital and a grant from the UK’s Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP).

The first plant will be in Esbjerg in Denmark and is expected to be operational by the end of 2024, followed by a second in the UK.

Further plants in France, Germany, Spain and Turkey are planned by 2030, each with the capacity to recycle a minimum of 36,000 tons of end-of-life turbine blades per year and to be powered only by 100% green energy, with zero carbon emissions.

The company says it will be able to start taking used blades by the end of 2023 and its goal is to abandon the landfilling and drastically reduce CO2 that is currently being emitted during incineration or co-processing in cement factories by 100 million tons by 2050.

The blades will be turned into composite panels for the construction industry and the manufacture of day-to-day products such as facades, industrial doors and kitchen countertops.

“As a society we are rightly focussed on renewable energy production but what to do with wind turbine blades at end-of-life has not been effectively addressed,” said Nicolas Derrien, Continuum Holdings CEO. “We’re changing that by offering a recycling solution for the blades and a construction product that will outperform most other existing construction materials and be infinitely recyclable – and with the lowest carbon footprint in its class.”

www.continuum.earth