The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO) announced the Wind Turbine Technology Recycling Funding Opportunity, which will invest up to $20 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This effort will help the United States develop technology solutions to improve the recyclability of wind energy technologies, especially for tough-to-recycle materials such as fiber-reinforced composites that can be found in wind turbine blades and nacelles, and rare earth element magnets that are found in wind turbine generators. This effort will help increase the sustainability of wind energy materials and bolster the domestic supply chain.
Currently, 90% or more of the mass of materials in a wind turbine can be economically recycled, with the remaining unrecycled materials being largely fiber-reinforced composites or metallic components with significant amounts of critical materials, such as rare earth element magnets found in generators.
This funding opportunity will help address the technological and supply chain challenges that currently limit recycling of fiber-reinforced composites and rare earth element magnets in wind turbines; accelerate the creation of designs that are more easily recyclable and reusable; and speed up the development of end-of-life processing technologies to cost effectively, sustainably, and efficiently recycle and recover materials from wind turbines, including manufacturing waste.
Topic Areas
Topic Area 1: Enabling Sustainable Wind Turbine Components
This topic will support projects to de-risk sustainable and recyclable wind turbine component designs and materials and accelerate broad commercial acceptance of these designs.
Current industry behaviors relating to recycling and sustainability are limited by inherent difficulties with recycling and reusing certain components, especially those composed primarily of fiber-reinforced composites or that use large amounts of critical minerals and critical engineered materials.
In recent years, the wind industry and other advanced materials industries have developed promising alternatives to incumbent product designs and their constituent materials. These innovations may offer several advantages, including but not limited to: enhanced recyclability of manufacturing waste and upon decommissioning, reduced complexity of maintenance and repair activities during operation, enhanced ability to reuse or remanufacture components, and manufacturing processes that are more efficient.
The two primary components of interest for this topic are wind turbine blades and wind turbine generators that use significant amounts of critical materials. Successful projects will show the sustainability and recyclability advantages offered by the innovation and de-risk the innovation for commercialization. De-risking may include, but would not be limited to: cost reduction, proof of operational reliability, sustainability improvements, and more.
Topic Area 2: Enabling Wind Turbine Material Recycling and Reuse Processes
This topic will support the demonstration and commercialization of material processing technologies and techniques that can be applied at commercial scale to wind turbine materials.
Currently, the majority of wind turbine materials are recycled upon decommissioning. The current rate of recycling is enabled by existing commercial- scale processes that are understood and cost-effective for responsible parties. However, domestic commercial-scale recycling processes and supply chains are not available for certain wind turbine materials like fiber-reinforced composites or metallic components with significant amounts of critical materials, such as rare earth element magnets found in generators.
With an increasing number of turbines expected to be decommissioned in coming years, paired with an expected increase in manufacturing waste with increased new production, there is a significant opportunity to advance novel processing technologies and techniques to enhance the recyclability, reusability, and sustainability of the wind energy industry.
A number of entities have been working to develop innovative recycling and reuse processes for wind turbine materials and components, but additional support is needed to accelerate the commercial viability of these technologies so they may have a positive impact on wind energy sustainability in the near-term.
Successful projects in this topic will demonstrate the ability to economically and sustainably recycle wind turbine materials at a scale relevant to the domestic wind energy industry. The innovation should address end of life products, factory waste, or both.
Topic Area 3: Recycled and Recyclable Material Qualification
Recent assessments of industry behaviors suggest an important obstacle to acceptance of novel sustainable materials and recycled materials is the qualification and certification of new materials and recycled materials. This topic seeks to develop a research collaborative to provide a key mechanism to qualify and certify new recycled materials that are relevant for wind energy technologies.
Through the capabilities and expertise of collaborative partners, the collaborative should develop certification standards and characterization methodologies that are informed by industry requirements for secondary market adoption of recycled materials. The collaborative should also examine the possibility of acting as a certification body for recycled materials.
This research collaborative should be led by an impartial research organization, such as a national lab, university, research institute, or standards organization. Members should include other research organizations with distinct capabilities and expertise, owners of innovative recycling processes and recycled materials, component manufacturers, wind plant developers, and potential secondary market stakeholders.
This Notice of Funding Opportunity Announcement (NOFO) was released on December 11, 2024. For more information, please read the full notice of funding opportunity.
Applicants and Teaming
DOE is compiling a Teaming Partner List to facilitate the formation of projects for this NOFO. The Teaming Partner List will be made available on EERE Exchange at https://eere-exchange.energy.gov and will be regularly updated to reflect new teaming partners who provide their organization’s information.
Additional Information
- Download the full Notice of Funding Opportunity on the EERE Exchange website.
- For NOFO-specific support, contact WETOFOA@ee.doe.gov
- Sign up for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) funding list to get notified of new EERE funding opportunities. Also sign up for our newsletter to stay current with the latest WETO news. .
Learn more about this notice of funding opportunity and other funding opportunities within DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
Key Dates
| NOFO Issue Date: | December 11, 2024 |
| Submission Deadline for Full Applications: | February 11, 2025, 5 p.m. ET |
| Expected Date for EERE Selection Notifications: | Spring 2025 |
| Expected Date for Award Negotiations: | Summer 2025 |