Wind turbine blades may look as if they could turn forever but, like most things in life, they have a finite span and will eventually need to be replaced. Many of the turbine’s components are commercially recyclable, but this has not been so for the blades - and this has created an opportunity for BladeBridge, a Cork-based start-up that is turning decommissioned blades into outdoor furniture and bridges for Ireland’s expanding greenway network.
BladeBridge was set up last year as a spin-out from the Re-Wind Research Network, an academic grouping led by the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US which includes researchers from Munster Technological University and University College Cork, where BladeBridge chief executive and co-founder Dr Angie Nagle recently completed a PhD in life-cycle sustainability.
“The Re-Wind Research group has been studying sustainable repurposing ideas for wind blades for the last six years and this generated a catalogue of ideas including aesthetically pleasing bridges and outdoor furniture,” says Nagle, whose PhD research focused on low-impact blade disposal and the social and environmental advantages of repurposing blades into products with a lower impact than their conventionally produced equivalents.
“The pedestrian bridge emerged as one of the top repurposing ideas early on and it is very timely in an Irish context as Ireland is expected to build an additional 1,000 pedestrian bridges for the country’s expanding cycling network in the coming years,” Nagle says.
“Bridges made from wind blades are 20-50 per cent lower carbon than conventional bridges and our solution also offers the best end-of-life option for blade waste. This is of major interest to wind turbine owners as right now their only disposal options are incineration or landfill.”
BladeBridge collects the redundant blades from its customers and scans and reverse engineers them to determine their remaining structural properties and capacity. Prototypes of potential bridge and furniture designs are being finalised and although the company plans to outsource the bridge construction, it will make the furniture in house. So far, one of its bridges has been installed on the Middletown to Youghal greenway (due to open in the near future) while its furniture is already in use on the Achill greenway.
BladeBridge has two sets of customers: the wind power operators who will pay the company to dispose of obsolete blades and infrastructure buyers committed to the circular economy. For example, public bodies in search of lower carbon options in line with their green procurement policies.
“Potential customers include county councils tendering for active transport schemes, local development companies renovating or building hiking infrastructure, the ESB for e-charging hub construction, and any private companies interested in buying outdoor furniture that exhibits their engagement with the circular economy,” Nagle says.
Nagle, who is originally from Alaska, has been in Ireland since 2003. She has a MSc in Biomedical Engineering from Trinity College and has worked as a process engineer with both Boston Scientific and Intel. Her co-founders in the business are electrical engineer Dr Paul Leahy and civil and structural engineer Kieran Ruane, who currently teach at UCC and MTU respectively.
BladeBridge is still at a very early stage and the blades arriving for repurposing are primarily one-offs and considered small at around 13 metres in length. However, once the company is fully up and running it will be processing blades of twice this size in bulk at its engineering facility in Cork. No Irish wind farm has been decommissioned yet, but this is expected to start happening sometime this year and the company is also in discussion with potential customers in overseas markets where the wind industry is well developed.
Investment in the business to date has been around €120,000 between private equity and support from the Enterprise Ireland New Frontiers programme and Dogpatch Labs. The company’s next step is to secure pre-seed funding.
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