LM_Sustainability_Report_2022

People and society Carbon neutrality Circularity LM Wind Power Sustainability Performance 2022 Introduction Our innovative leading-edge protection ProBlade Ultra (PBU) has high durability and excellent erosion resistance and that reduces the downtime of the turbine. With the PBU there is significantly lower Annual Energy Production (AEP) impact than other leading-edge protection solutions due to optimized dimensions and optimized placement on the leading edge. Blade recycling at end-of-life Today, around 85-90% of wind turbines’ total mass can be recycled and have established recycling practices in place. But the legacy blades are challenging to recycle due to the composite materials used in their production. While various technologies exist to recycle the composite materials in blades, they are not widely available at industrial scale. Further recycling of a composite structure, like a wind turbine blade, is not just a wind industry challenge, but a cross industry challenge. Industry-wide partnerships to establish the recycling value chains are the way forward. ZEBRA project In 2022 we continued our progress on the ZEBRA (Zero wastE Blade ReseArch) project, where LM Wind Power is designing and manufacturing 100% recyclable wind turbine blades. Achieving zero waste blades relies on the full value chain, which is represented in the ZEBRA consortium – from develop- ment of materials to blade manufacturing, wind turbine oper- ation, and eventually recycling of the decommissioned blade material as well as the waste from blade manufacturing sites. The ZEBRA consortium, in March 2022, announced a new step forward on the industry’s transition to a circular economy with the production of the first prototype of its 100% recycla- ble wind turbine blade. The 62m blade was made by LM Wind Power at our factory in Ponferrada, Spain, using Arkema’s Eli- um® resin, which is a thermoplastic resin well known for its recyclable properties together with the new high perfor- mance glass fabrics from Owens Corning. We achieved another milestone in September 2022 when the ZEBRA consortium’s recyclable blade prototype successfully cleared the static tests, marking the next step forward in the wind industry’s goal of developing fully recyclable wind tur- bines. The ZEBRA blade is the first and largest commercial-sized thermoplastic blade in the world. Along with designing and manufacturing the blade, the ZEBRA project team at LM Wind Power is also responsible for testing, with experts involved from different functions. The prototype blade will now go through fatigue testing, before a final post-fatigue static test. Meanwhile other manufacturing components and production waste are undergoing laboratory trials as part of the develop- ment of the recycling process. As the testing continues on the first prototype 62.2 blade, a second prototype 77.4P6 blade is planned for manufacture in 2023, which will include new recyclable carbon sparcap tech- nology. DecomBlades project There are technologies in place that can recycle legacy wind turbine blades, but the challenge for the industry lies in estab- lishing a viable value chain from cradle-to-cradle that is scala- ble to handle the coming volumes of end-of-life blade waste. To support that blades can be 100% recycled in practice, LM Wind Power is part of the DecomBlades consortium in Den- mark, which brings together leading players in the wind industry, recycling companies and universities to form the basis to commercialize viable blade recycling solutions. In this three-year project, partially funded by the Innovation Fund Denmark, LM Wind Power is leading the consortium’s work to establish blade material passports, utilizing our expertise on blade construction and material composition. In 2022, the blade manufacturers in the DecomBlades project jointly introduced a recommended blade material passport – a new document that maps out the composition of blades. This document provides standardized information on the type of materials that are used in making the blades and their placement, thus enabling making it easier for recycling part- ners to dismantle and recycle them in the best possible way. Blades2Build project LM Wind Power is also a member of the Blades2Build (B2B) con- sortium, which is focused on developing new recycling solutions for manufacturing waste as well as end-of-life blades. The pro- ject includes building a large-scale industrial demonstration plant in Spain that will convert waste into new building solutions such as concrete, aggregates or dry mortars. The Blades2Build project builds on collaboration with Endesa and Prezero announced in February 2022, to support the establishment of a blade waste recycling plant located in Cubillos del Sil in Spain. Once the plant is established, LM Wind Power plans to supply surplus glass fiber generated during the manufacture of blades at its Spanish plants in Pon- ferrada and Castellón. 34