Introducing circular economy practices into the wind industry

Year

2021

Organisation

Renewable Parts

Description

Renewable Parts (RP) introduces circular economy practices into the wind energy industry to improve sustainability of wind energy assets by reducing the emissions of carbon and the amount of waste sent to scrap and landfill. This is a practice that can and should be utilised across renewable energy and the
energy network to ensure green energy is truly sustainable.

Highlights:

  • As a pioneer of circular economy in the wind industry, RP had to create new processes and procedures and work with customers to introduce new circular economy reverse logistic practices.
  • Development of unique reused packaging for parts including steel braces for yaw gears and wooden boxes for smaller parts.
  • RP aims to transfer their expertise to the offshore market as well

About the practice:

Renewable Parts produces refurbished products for wind turbines, currently mainly yaw gears, to create a sustainable supply chain in the wind industry. The circular economy practice is a supply chain method used in place of a linear economy to produce and supply items to end-users. Its main objective is to create a more sustainable supply chain throughout industries it is used in by reducing the requirement to create new products which can sometimes be one of the main causes of emissions, and by reducing the number of items that are sent to landfill by refurbishing, reusing, or re-manufacturing.

RGI gratefully acknowledges the EU LIFE funding support:

EU LIFE funding support Logo

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the LIFE Programme. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.