FCC Ámbito took part in the Solarplaza Recycling Renewables Summit 2024 on the recycling of renewable energies held in Amsterdam on 6^th November. The event, organised by PV CYCLE and SMARTSOLAR, aims to become the benchmark congress in Europe for the recycling of equipment used in the generation of renewable energy at the end of its useful life.

Numerous professionals and specialists from the sector attended and participated in the congress, including representatives from entities such as the Dutch Ministry of Climate and Green Growth; WEEE Forum, formed by 52 global Extended Producer Responsibility associations in the WEEE sector; EuRIC, Confederation of European Recycling Industries; FEAD, European Association for Waste Management; as well as other actors in the value chain of solar panels, batteries and wind turbines.

FCC Ámbito gave a technical presentation entitled ‘The recycling of wind turbine blades’ by Iván Botamino, head of the Materials Engineering and Renewable Energy department of FCC Ámbito's Technical Management. The presentation assessed the future needs for recycling waste from the different renewable energies and in particular, in the case of the wind energy sector, paying special attention to the case of wind turbine blades, which are particularly difficult to recycle as they are made of composites, basically polymer-reinforced fibreglass.

In this scenario, the proposal of the company ENERGYLOOP, owned by Iberdrola and FCC Ámbito, was presented, which has developed a material recovery process that, under circular economy criteria, focuses on the maximum retention of value in the final materials obtained and their specific treatment depending on their final application, through user-oriented solutions.

ENERGYLOOP is the company owned by Iberdrola, through its PERSEO programme, and FCC Ámbito, subsidiary of FCC Servicios Medio Ambiente, created to lead the recycling of wind farm components, one of the largest in the sector. Its objective is the material recovery of the components and their reuse in productive industrial sectors such as the energy, aerospace, automotive, textile, chemical and construction industries.