Gael Energy has transformed a blade from a destroyed wind turbine into a table, showcasing how decommissioned turbine parts can be repurposed.
The operations and maintenance group included the table at its stand at Onshore Wind Conference 2024. The blade came from a turbine that was destroyed by fire at Ardrossan wind farm.
The 30MW project in North Ayrshire is managed by Nadara – back when it was called Ventient Energy – which acquired the wind farm in 2017.
The turbine was damaged on 22 July 2022, when one of the wind farm’s 15 Vestas V80 turbines caught fire.
It was the second turbine fire at the wind farm, after a blaze in 2011 when Scotland was hit by high winds as part of the storms dubbed “Hurricane Bawbag”.
In the aftermath of the 2022 fire, decommissioning specialist ReBlade was brought in to recycle and dispose of the nacelle and blades, with Gael Energy contracted to transport the damaged components from Ardrossan to Nadara’s storage facility in Glasgow.
The bulk of the work involved removing the 80 tonne nacelle, with ReBlade successfully scrapping the steel and repurposing the gearbox equipment for future use as part of Nadara’s critical stock.
The 40 metre blades, meanwhile, were so badly damaged by the fire that they could not be repurposed.
“Due to the rotor being imbalanced and the damage to the blades being irrecoverable, the safe system of work was to cut the blade into small sections for removal,” Nadara head of asset management UK John Morris told Energy Voice at the industry event in Edinburgh.
It was during the removal work that Gael Energy managing director Hamish Campbell spotted a piece of blade lying on the ground, and had a flash of creative inspiration.
“I took it because I wanted to make a boardroom table out of it,” he said.
He loaded up the 6m by 2.5m piece of blade on the back of a truck and took it to the company’s Evanton workshop.
© Michael Behr/DCT MediaA year later, Campbell spent a week building the table himself, sanding down the fibreglass chunk and using recycled pallets to create the top.
The recycled turbine blade made its debut appearance at the Highland Show this year, where it was used to serve beer – specifically Black Isle’s Yellowhammer.
“I was planning on cutting a hole in the side of it to stick a keg inside,” Campbell added.
In addition, Gael Energy is currently working with ReBlade as part of another decommissioning project, with Campbell eyeing the tip of a removed blade for use in the creation of a reception table.
“It illustrates the circular economy ethos of the industry,” Campbell said.
The recycling and repurposing of turbine parts is a growing issue for the wind industry, especially turbine blades. While there are ways to repurpose them, they are also frequently sent to landfill – especially from older models, which were not designed with recyclability in mind.
Nadara recently announced that it was working with ReBlade to develop a sustainable decommissioning strategy for its plan to repower the Beinn Ghlas Wind Farm.
“Responsible decommissioning of wind turbines is a theme that’s going to come up more and more as the years go by – it’s great to be part of the early adoption and seeing the industry moving from theory into practice,” said Nadara development manager Barry Cooke.
“The one lesson we have learnt is that there’s a real opportunity for developers to collaborate with suppliers such as ReBlade and Gael Energy to achieve our collective net zero goals.”
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