Nordex: No Greenwashing

The visit to Nordex was pretty impressive to me. To go into the turbine and to see how it works are indeed fascinating, but the production and recycle of blades made me contemplate about the future production and difficulties that Nordex and their competitors will face.

Through the introduction from Jane, all blades are customized based on the shape and size of the turbine; that is to say, blades could not be re-used or switched from one turbine to another. Though compared to their competitors’ 20 years of use of blades, blades from Nordex will “retire” after 25 years of spinning, the recycle of blades is still a big problem. Because there must be a coat at the surface of blades, materials are merged together and could not be separated after 25 years of usage. I took a look at Nordex’s sustainability report and knew that for now, the way they try to extend blades’ life is to refurbish the turbine because of the customization of blades. However, one of Nordex’s goals is to provide fully recyclable blades by 2032, and it is surprising to see that they’ve already achieved their other two product goals before the deadline they set for themselves.

Companies such as Nordex providing goals, progress, and data would definitely become more and more reliable and eliminate the concerns of greenwashing from consumers and investors.