The Wind Energy Industry Faces Significant Sustainability Challenges

W ind energy has become a cornerstone of global power systems over the past decade, yet its success story obscures a looming environmental dilemma.As wind turbines approach the end of their life span, the industry faces a surge in decommissioned wind turbine blades (WTBs), with more than 43 million tonnes projected to require disposal by 2050. 1 According to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), global installed wind capacity has increased from 24 GW in 2001 to 1136 GW in 2024, a nearly 50-fold increase, while maintaining a 7% annual growth rate.2 Though technological innovation has advanced material recovery solutions, a critical concern remains under-addressed: environmental pollutants released during blade treatment processes.WTBs are primarily composite structures, comprising a box beam (spar cap and shear web) and an aerodynamic shell.The spar caps are solid fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) laminates, whereas the shear webs and shell are typically FRP-core-FRP sandwich forms with polymer foam or balsa cores.Manufacturing these components still relies on catalysts, curing agents, flame retardants, and plasticizers.While functionally irreplace-able, these substances lock in pollutant risks that inevitably resurface during end-of-life treatments.In the absence of bladespecific regulation, such chemicals remain in service, particularly in older equipment containing phased-out compounds.This legacy of embedded chemicals complicates end-of-life management and amplifies disposal risks.Prior work shows that additives in FRP waste, including WTBs, can persist through recycling processes and pose long-term environmental hazards, 3 yet most assessments of WTB treatment options have not put these chemicals, and the secondary pollutants they can generate, at the center of the evaluation.4 Instead, existing comparisons are typically framed around recovery yield, cost, or energy-climate