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Join CWIC, the Coalition for Wind Industry Circularity!

CWIC: There’s no time to waste!

CWIC, the Coalition for Wind Industry Circularity, is a new initiative focused on demonstrating and delivering the value of a new sustainable, circular supply chain for the onshore and offshore wind industry in the UK. It was jointly created by SSE Renewables, the University of Strathclyde, the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland and Renewable Parts Ltd, who are now seeking peers, suppliers, policy-makers and others across the renewables sector to join them.

Typically, when wind turbine parts fail or reach the end of their life, they are replaced by newly manufactured components, with old parts mostly ending up as scrap. CWIC aims to change this, and establish a new, UK-based supply chain capable of moving towards a circular approach for replacing onshore and offshore wind components with reused, refurbished or remanufactured parts. This will not only be critical for meeting net zero ambitions and supporting energy security, but also

Understanding barriers to circularity

New primary research undertaken with leaders from across the renewables sector has been published by the University of Strathclyde.

A summary of some of the key findings are detailed below, with the full report available by scanning the QR code.

has the potential to create thousands of jobs and support economic growth in communities through a local, homegrown supply chain.

New analysis, commissioned by CWIC and undertaken by BVG Associates, found around 120,000 wind turbines (584 GW of capacity) are forecast to be operational across the UK, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden by 2035. While there are a

• 50% of participants have a specific procurement model for attaining recirculated parts, and only 40% have a specific policy in place that defines their use.

• 81% of participants stated they perceived hesitation to the use of recirculated parts within the industry.

• The use of recirculated components is described as a balance between minimising risk and cost. Finding the balance between price, quality and procurement speed are the key drivers when deciding whether to use recirculated components in place of new ones.

• Life cycle cost modelling has not yet been fully adopted but has the potential to reduce downtimes as well as schedule part replacements.

• Currently, the implementation of sustainable practices varies between companies and is partially reflected in their organisational structure.

• Very few companies have an accurate system for recording their emissions across their supply chain and therefore making it hard to quantify their progress towards net zero.

• Owner/operators are very open to using recirculated parts but do not have visibility of the opportunities and are reliant on SMEs taking the initiative to approach them with solutions.

• Traditionally, the Government has been reliant on industry to define the standards and targets. There is an opportunity for this to be reversed.

number of barriers to circularity which the industry must overcome together, the scale of the potential economic, social and environmental value that can be created for the UK is enormous.

A circular economy is good for business, good for the economy, good for society and good for the planet too. The time is now for the industry to come together and build the capabilities needed for a sustainable, circular renewables supply chain in the UK.

Quantifying the scale of the opportunity

Economic consultants and renewables supply chain experts BVG Associates were commissioned by CWIC to undertake a preliminary assessment of the potential economic opportunity for the UK from building its capabilities as a European centre of excellence for the reuse, refurbishment and remanufacture of wind turbine component parts.

According to this new analysis, a UK supply chain capable of refurbishing just ten out of the thousands of parts which make up a single wind turbine could access a Europeanwide market worth almost £10bn to UK GDP between 2025 and 2035. Of this, an estimated £1.6bn contribution could be generated from demand from UK operational turbines alone.

Building the capabilities in the UK to service more wind turbine parts, as well as more export markets across Europe and elsewhere, would increase this potential economic impact significantly.

BVG Associates also found that this activity could generate more than 20,000 full-time equivalent jobs by 2035 and could prevent more than 800,000 tonnes of parts from being scrapped.

The full report from BVG Associates is available by scanning the QR code.

£9.6bn >800,000 >20,000 jobs

potential contribution to UK GDP 2025-2035

tonnes of avoided waste to scrap supported by 2035

Get involved

If you want to join CWIC and be part of creating a new industry, register your interest by getting in touch via circularwind@strath.ac.uk.

CWIC actions and asks for partners

CWIC actions

Next 12 weeks

Next 12 months

1. Build on current momentum for CWIC and engage with potential partners.

2. Establish CWIC as a functioning industry group, with agreed structure and objectives for Steering Committee and working groups.

3. Publish the full CWIC greenprint for ambition and action.

4. Set targets to enable monitoring of progress against CWIC’s goals.

CWIC asks for partners

Submit a formal expression of interest for joining CWIC by emailing circularwind@strath.ac.uk.

Provide resource for membership on Steering Committee and/or working groups, enabling CWIC to clearly set out its action plan and measurable goals.

Next 3 years

By 2030

5. Secure funding and support for innovative circular supply chain development.

6. Demonstrate quantifiable progress through the development of UK supply chain options for reused, refurbished and remanufactured component parts.

7. Develop common standards for reporting on individual company approaches.

8. Align partners across CWIC on standardised approaches to evolve through-life and endof-life solutions at component and turbine level.

9. Prove the impact of CWIC in terms of contribution to the UK economy, reduction in raw material use and waste to scrap reduction, and carbon emission savings.

10. Continue to broaden and extend the impact of CWIC, agreeing the next decade of action.

Active contribution and commitment to CWIC by supporting funding applications, promoting open collaboration, ongoing participation in the Steering Committee and/or working groups, and implementing CWIC actions.

Continuous knowledge and experience sharing, with commitment to reused, refurbished and remanufactured components becoming the default option for replacement parts.