Flying in the face of the fearmongering often dragged out to oppose clean energy technologies, fully renewable energy utility ScottishPower recently revealed that 99.9 per cent of the materials from Scotland’s first commercial wind farm have been successfully recycled and reused following decommissioning.
One of the most pervasive “warnings” against clean energy technologies like solar and wind energy is their supposed inability to be recycled at the end of their life.
And while continued innovation and governmental policy support will be required to ensure that things like solar panels and wind turbine blades are able to be recycled or reused, the groundwork has already been laid.
ScottishPower, part of the Iberdrola Group, and the first integrated energy company in the UK to generate 100 per cent green electricity, recently highlighted how the framework for recycling and reusing wind turbines is already in place in the UK.
According to a report published following the decommissioning of Scotland’s first commercial wind farm, 99.9 per cent of the materials from the 26 wind turbines were recycled and reused, with contracts for at least 10 supply chain companies in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK.
