The Challenge

The wind energy industry is experiencing rapid growth. In Ireland, wind power’s share of electricity supply has more than doubled in the last decade. It now provides 34% of Ireland’s electricity supply, second only to natural gas at 44% (SEAI, 2024). Wind has very low emissions; about 13 grams of CO₂ per kilowatt-hour (NREL, 2001), which mainly comes from the materials, manufacturing, and construction of the wind turbines. Once in operation, a wind turbine produces virtually zero emissions. In comparison, natural gas emits 486 grams per kilowatt-hour (NREL, 2001), making wind 97% cleaner.  While this represents a significant leap forward, the industry still faces challenges. How can we make the materials, manufacturing, and construction of wind turbines more sustainable? How do we maintain them and source parts for them decades later? How can the existing turbines be improved upon? What happens to these massive structures when they reach the end of their life? Addressing these questions requires a circular approach.

Many wind farms are approaching their end of life, meaning huge quantities of waste materials will need to be disposed of. In Scotland alone, 5,500 onshore turbines will be decommissioned by 2050, creating 1.4 million tonnes of waste material (Jacobs, 2021). If you were to load this onto lorries and line them bumper to bumper, the queue would extend from Cork to Belfast and back (based on a 16.5 metre long articulated truck (RSA, 2025)  carrying 27 tonnes (Espace Global Freight, n.d.)). The industry urgently needs to address this waste.

Each turbine has about 8,000 parts (US DoE, n.d.), such as gears and motors, many of which will fail or will need to be replaced regularly over its lifespan. These parts currently end up in a landfill or are melted down to be recycled. Producing the materials for replacement parts accounts for 83% of their emissions (Arias Losada, 2021). The wind industry creates a lot of waste, but the materials used to replace parts are also a major source of emissions.

The Circular Solution

Renewable Parts is a Scottish company tackling waste in the wind industry. Renewable Parts began exploring the reuse of parts in the Wind Industry in 2012, but it took until 2018 for the idea to gain real traction. This illustrates both the inertia in shifting industry mindsets and the persistence required for circular business models to succeed. Their work points towards a growing recognition that achieving net-zero goals depends on the sustainability of supply chains; and remanufacturing can be central to achieving that.

Renewable Parts’ approach is simple: take end-of-life components, remanufacture them to a standard equal to or better than new, and return them to turbine owners.

Wind turbines operate for decades in extreme environments, and sooner or later, some of their components are going to break. The failed parts, along with parts from decommissioned turbines, are taken to Renewable Parts’ facility in Lochgilphead. Here they are stripped into components, and everything down to the bolts and washers is cleaned and inspected. The bearings, seals, and grease are always replaced, and individual worn-out components are refurbished or swapped out. Once reassembled, the parts perform like new and even have the same warranty. This reuse of material enables lower cost parts and diverts a huge amount of materials going to waste.

Despite common misconceptions that remanufactured parts might be somehow inferior to new parts, industries such as aerospace have long relied on them, proving their safety and reliability. In fact, remanufacturing often outperforms original manufacturing, as data from past failures enables engineers to design out weaknesses and produce improved parts. Far more rigorous than repair, remanufacturing delivers high-integrity products that often surpass the originals, positioning it as a cornerstone of a high-quality and sustainable industrial future.

Renewable Parts tracks exactly how components fail: by age, manufacturer, and even the specific conditions of the turbine e.g., wind alignment. By pinpointing the root causes, they can redesign vulnerable parts. The result? Remanufactured components that are stronger and often outlast the originals. In one example, an improved Siemens 1.3 yaw drive showed a 10% reduction in failures compared to the original design (Cross, 2024). 

Renewable Parts demonstrates how remanufacturing with a circular business model can improve quality while reducing time, cost, and carbon. And it's working; turnover is growing by 37% year on year (Zero Waste Scotland, 2024), with remanufacturing already accounting for 38% of revenue. The company aims to raise this to two-thirds within five years, and in the process create more skilled jobs in rural Scotland.

Climate Impact

The remanufactured parts offer significant carbon savings. Customers receive carbon certificates, allowing them to measure their reductions and compare the value directly against buying offsets. Between 2018 and 2024, Renewable Parts’ remanufacturing has saved 579 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (Zero Waste Scotland, 2024). That’s equivalent to the electricity of roughly 540 homes in Ireland for a year. In that same period, they have diverted 198 tonnes of material from landfill (Zero Waste Scotland, 2024), or about seven articulated lorries full.

The potential impact across the wind industry is vast. Research commissioned by the Coalition for Wind Industry Circularity, of which Renewables Parts is a member, found that if just ten out of the thousands of parts in a turbine used a circular supply chain, it could save 800,000 tonnes of parts from being scrapped in 10 European countries by 2035. This market would be worth 9.6 billion GBP (11.1 billion EUR) and create 20,000 jobs (BVG Associates Limited, 2023).

Circular economy solutions aren’t just good for the environment - they also make clear economic sense. This presents a huge untapped business opportunity; Stephen Fitzpatrick of the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland said, “Renewable Parts Limited are the only company in Scotland, and arguably the UK, that are picking this up. But they can only do so much. We need many, many more of those companies or for Renewable Parts to grow significantly.”

Replicability

• Vestas, one of the world's largest turbine manufacturers, operates a refurbishment facility of 120 people in Lübeck, Germany. Failed generators are refurbished, cutting their CO₂ emissions by more than half compared to producing a new one. This supports their goal of reducing supply chain emissions in their service business by 45% by 2030 (Arias Losada, 2021).

  
  

• Siemens Gamesa operates 11 repair centres globally, which offer reduced costs and lead-times, with improved reliability and availability of parts (Siemens Gamesa, n.d.). They have also launched the "RecyclableBlade," the world's first fully recyclable wind turbine blade, which uses a new resin type that allows for the separation of blade materials at the end of life(Siemens Gamesa, n.d.).

  
  

• BladeBridge, an Irish company and CIRCULÉIRE member, repurposes old wind turbine blades into new products such as bridges and outdoor furniture. The blade is used in place of virgin materials such as steel and concrete, resulting in a 20-50% lower environmental impact. The products also require less maintenance, saving money over their lifespan. Their products have been used on the Achill Sound and Midleton to Youghal greenways, as well as communities across the country. Read our BladeBridge case study here.

  
  

• GE Renewable Energy partnered with Veolia North America (VNA) to process blades from its U.S.-based onshore turbines, shredding them for use as a raw material for cement manufacturing.

These examples show how circular solutions are fostering an entire ecosystem of companies, each specialising in different aspects of wind turbines.