Iberdrola España awards EnergyLoop the contract for blade recycling and waste management from repowering its first two wind farms
- In total, 139 wind turbines - 417 blades - will be dismantled, amounting to more than 800 tonnes.
Iberdrola España has awarded EnergyLoop the contract to recycle blades and manage part waste from the Isabela and Molar de Molinar wind farms in Isabela and Molar de Molinar wind farms in Albacete, the first of the company's wind farms to be repowered in Spain. A total of 139 wind turbines will be dismantled: 417 blades and more than 800 tonnes.
EnergyLoop, a company created in 2022 by Iberdrola Ventures Perseo and FCC Ámbito (a subsidiary of FCC Servicios Medio Ambiente specialising in integrated waste management), through its Venture Builder programme for launching new innovative and sustainable businesses, was created to build a pioneering industrial-scale blade recycling facility and lead wind turbine blade recycling in Spain and Portugal.
EnergyLoop's blade recycling plant, located in the municipality of Cortes, Navarra, recently completed the civil works for its facilities and expects to be operational in early 2025. In the meantime, it already has all the facilities and permits necessary to receive and store the blades.
Iberdrola España is currently in the process of repowering two of its wind farms, La Isabela and Molar de Molinar, Albacete. The wind turbines will be replaced by more powerful and efficient models, in a process known as repowering.
The machines used in the repowering will have a unit power that is up to six times that of the first wind turbines installed in Spain more than two decades ago, reducing the installed wind turbines by 117 units. In addition, the new wind turbines will increase the facilities’ energy production by an average of 30%. Both wind farms were awarded subsidies in the first call under the Circular Repowering programme, granted by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge through the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving, financed through the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
One of the most important factors during the dismantling process is waste management from the replaced wind turbines, especially the blades. The Iberdrola Group, of which Iberdrola España forms part, has already set a target to recycle 50% of the blades of dismantled wind turbines and solar panels by 2025 and 100% by 2030 as part of its commitment to the efficient use of resources and within its Circular Economy Plan, which involves a cultural change in the way we understand the production and consumption system to address scarce resources, environmental impact, value creation and jobs.
Iberdrola España launched a competitive bidding process to recycle blades and manage other materials, which was awarded to EnergyLoop, ensuring the traceability of waste management and maximum recovery of materials through their conditioning and use in subsequent industrial processes. EnergyLoop has the necessary operational capacity to manage the volume of waste generated within the desired timeframe.