The first turbine of RWE’s 340 MW Kaskasi offshore wind farm was recently commissioned on the site 35 km north of the island of Heligoland, and is now supplying green electricity to the grid. Nine of the total of 38 Siemens Gamesa SG 8.0-167 DD Flex offshore wind turbines are now installed, each with a capacity of close to 9 MW. Kaskasi is RWE’s sixth wind farm off the German coast and will be fully operational by the end of 2022.
The Kaskasi project features the world’s first installed recyclable wind turbine blade. The components of the 81-meter long RecyclableBlades can be recycled for new applications at the end of their lifecycle. The expectation is that this development, pioneered by RWE and Siemens Gamesa, will help pave the way towards the full recyclability of wind turbines.
Many components of a wind turbine already have established recycling practices, but until now, the composite materials used for the blades have been more challenging to recycle. The resin system employed binds all components together. In its RecyclableBlade, Siemens Gamesa uses a resin type with a chemical structure that makes it possible to efficiently separate it from other components following decommissioning. The process protects the properties of the materials, allowing them to be re-used in new casting applications, for example in the automotive industry or in consumer goods such as flat screen casings.
RWE intends to grow its share in global offshore wind capacity from the current 3 GW to 8 GW by 2030. While in the German North Sea RWE is pushing ahead with the development of four offshore wind projects with a total capacity of 1.5 GW. By 2030, says RWE, it will have invested up to €15 billion (gross) in the green energy sector in Germany.
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