Decommissioning of five wind turbines at the Engie Green wind farm in Port-la-Nouvelle (Aude, France)

In August 2019 and November 2020, five older-generation wind turbines needed to be safely removed and dismantled and their parts recovered. Engie Green contacted several partners, including SUEZ, to dismantle and recover the turbines, with a target of 97% recovery, and provide a materials report for each one.

SUEZ’s work on the wind turbine dismantling project involved sorting the waste and recovering both materials and energy. Following dismantling, each component was sorted with the goal of optimising recovery and recycling. When the process was complete for each turbine, SUEZ provided its customer, Engie Green, with a detailed material report stating the volume of each material and how it was recycled or converted to energy. For example, the electrical cabinet and other electronic waste was recycled at the SUEZ WEEE plant in Feyzin, near Lyon. The metals were processed by our subsidiary Boone Comenor Metalimpex, and the cables by our specialist cable recycling unit. Each flow is tracked and the customer can access each waste tracking certificate.

In the specifications, our customer recommended a global recovery target of 97%. Following the second dismantling campaign, the material report indicates that 99% of materials have been recovered – 98% through recycling and 1% through landfill. Even the turbine blades are recycled to produce insulation panels or fibre-reinforced concrete. The concrete plinths, once sorted, crushed and stripped of their metal reinforcement, are reused as aggregates in the construction sector.

By helping to structure this new industry of dismantling and recovery, SUEZ is positioning itself as a key player in the circular and performance economy: rather than just selling a service to its customers, SUEZ enables them to generate a source of revenue.