Circular Economy Business Opportunities in Offshore Wind

The offshore wind sector continues to soar with amazing growth pathways ahead. At the same time the first generation of turbines are starting to reach the end of their service lives. This wave of new construction combined with mass decommissioning presents the industry with fresh challenges in how it manages its resources.

How can we sustainably secure the huge volumes of materials such as copper, cobalt and neodymium? And how do we manage components and materials in line with the green credentials of the sector? Circular economy approaches can turn these challenges into new business opportunities.

Workshop programme

At this workshop we will:

1. Introduce and discuss a circular economy framework for offshore wind to prioritise drivers, barriers, actions, and research and innovation challenges with interactive polls.
2. Briefly introduce the offshore wind sector, the scale of the opportunity, and turbine components and materials.
3. Break-out groups to define existing business practices and identify new opportunities in a circular economy for offshore wind.
4. Introduce the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult’s “Circular Economy for the Wind Sector” joint industry programme and how you could join.

You will also have the opportunity to stay for an hour of quick fire presentations on blade recycling technologies, identified in a study by the Energy Transition Alliance. You will be able to express interest to take part in roundtable meetings for feasibility assessments taking place early 2021.