Risk, sustainability and impact assessment for safe and sustainable wind turbines
15 April 2025
As the EOLIAN project leads the transition toward next-generation wind turbine blades made from innovative vitrimer-based composites, Work Package (WP) 7: Sustainability analysis and risk assessment plays a vital role in ensuring that these new technologies are not only effective but also safe, sustainable, and economically viable.
Led by IRES, in collaboration with project partners Tekniker, Proplast, Politecnico di Milano, AEP Polymers, Norvento, and Zorlu Enerji, WP7 brings together expertise in risk assessment, environmental science, and economic analysis to guide the development and deployment of the project’s technical innovations.
This WP addresses one of the most pressing challenges in materials innovation: how to create high-performance products that are safe to manufacture, use, and dispose of, while also minimizing environmental and economic impacts.
WP7 is central to that mission, providing the tools and insights needed to embed Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) principles throughout the entire value chain of the fibre reinforced vitrimer composites.
Progressing risk assessment
Throughout the project’s duration, a structured risk assessment methodology will be implemented to identify critical risk areas during the synthesis of the novel vitrimer composites and the manufacturing process of the blade.
A comprehensive, tiered evaluation has already begun to proactively identify potential hazards and implement mitigation measures at strategic stages, towards a safe-by-design final product. In the Tier 1 phase of the assessment, the materials used are classified according to current ISO and OECD protocols to determine their hazard levels based on their intrinsic properties. The results from this classification, will be coupled with the ongoing remote exposure assessment, which evaluates operators’ potential exposure to these materials.
To facilitate the procedure and promote collaboration, the partners contributed information about their materials and processes. This data was complemented by additional information sourced from open-access databases such as the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). The Stoffenmanager 8 tool is deployed to process the combined data and assess the associated exposure risks.
A workshop on state-of-the-art methodologies, such as FMEA and what-if analysis, was carried out to familiarise the consortium with risk assessment techniques and promote collaboration.
WP7 addresses one of the most pressing challenges in materials innovation: how to create high-performance products that are safe to manufacture, use, and dispose of, while also minimizing environmental and economic impacts.
Advancing environmental and economic evaluations
Beyond safety, WP7 is conducting an integrated assessment of the environmental, financial, and social impacts of the new vitrimer-based wind turbine blade technologies.
A full life cycle assessment (LCA) is being carried out to quantify emissions, energy use, and resource consumption from a cradle-to-gate perspective for materials and a cradle-to-grave approach for the wind turbine blades. This includes evaluating recyclability and end-of-life scenarios.
To ensure consistency and transparency, a system boundary has been defined for all life cycle analyses. In support of data collection, questionnaires have been distributed to all partners involved in early-stage production, helping to gather primary process data. These inputs will be combined with data from established databases such as Ecoinvent and analyzed using SimaPro 9.0.
A life cycle costing (LCC) analysis is running alongside the LCA, using the same functional units and system boundaries to assess the full cost of materials and technologies – including capital expenses, operating costs, and end-of-life expenditures. This will provide a clear picture of long-term economic sustainability.
A preliminary literature review has shown that the manufacturing cost of wind turbine blades accounts for 15-20% of total wind turbine production cost, highlighting the importance of cost-effective innovations in blade materials.
In addition, WP7 includes a social life cycle assessment (sLCA), which examines the societal and socio-economic impacts across the value chain. The sLCA will consider factors such as labour practices, health and safety at work, and the broader societal implications of deploying sustainable turbine technologies.
Together, these assessments ensure that environmental benefits are not achieved at the expense of people or communities.
A joint workshop on LCA and LCC, performed by IRES, has already been delivered to the consortium, ensuring a shared understanding of methodology and alignment in data collection.
Next steps
In the coming months, WP7 will complete the hazard evaluation and exposure assessments, finalize life cycle data modeling, and deliver consolidated results that identify environmental hotspots, economic trade-offs, and social risks or opportunities.
These outputs will provide essential guidance for the next design iterations and for broader policy and industry engagement.
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