Acciona Energia and El Ganso have launched a line of trainers made from recycled blades from the Tahivilla wind farm in Cadiz, Spain, which is being repowered.
The new shoes stand out for their sustainable nature, giving a new useful life to materials from dismantled wind blades, and for their design, designed for work environments and daily use.
In addition, they incorporate a waterproof and stain-resistant fabric developed by the Spanish company Sepiia.
After the successful launch of the first shoes made from recycled wind blades in 2023, Acciona and El Ganso are once again contributing to the circular economy with this second limited edition, which is now available for sale on El Ganso’s website and in its physical stores.
At Tahivilla Acciona Energía is replacing 98 old turbines with 13 more modern, powerful and efficient Nordex turbines, which will optimise the operation of the park and increase its renewable generation capacity by up to 72%.
With this initiative, Acciona Energia is reusing wind turbine blades dismantled at the end of their useful life to turn them into a new product and advance in the development of blade recycling solutions, one of the main challenges of the wind sector now that thousands of wind turbines are in the final stretch of their useful life.
Although about 90% of a wind turbine is recyclable through already consolidated processes, the blades – composed of complex materials such as resins, fiberglass and/or carbon fiber – require specific solutions.
The main challenge is to develop sustainable and viable processes on an industrial scale.
In recent years, Acciona Energia has carried out several pilot projects to reuse recycled blade materials: from the first collaboration to manufacture shoes with El Ganso, to the construction of structural beams for photovoltaic plants, or the launch of a collection of surfboards in Australia.
In addition, the company is developing an industrial-scale wind blade recycling plant in Lumbier (Navarra) to process 6000 tonnes per year and convert into new raw materials for sectors such as the automotive and construction sectors.