The EOLIAN team came together in Italy on 26-27 May for the project’s M24 General Assembly, marking another milestone in our journey towards more sustainable wind energy solutions.

Hosted by AEP Polymers at the Area Science Park in Trieste, the two-day meeting offered a valuable opportunity to reflect on the strong progress achieved over the past six months and to align on the next steps towards EOLIAN’s ambitious goal of developing innovative vitrimer composites and advanced structural health monitoring technologies for wind turbine blades.

Encouraging progress is being made across all areas of the project. This includes the development of bio-based vitrimers, the manufacture and testing of basalt fibre-reinforced vitrimer composites, and the integration of sensors and actuators into the composite material to support structural health monitoring and de-icing capabilities.

Work is also underway to explore new end-of-life recycling and reuse pathways for these materials, and comprehensive sustainability analyses of the EOLIAN solutions are continuing.

Looking ahead, preparations are progressing well for the manufacture of the EOLIAN demonstrator – a vitrimer composite wind turbine blade. Construction of the blade mould is already in progress and we look forward to sharing further updates in the months ahead.

During the meeting, partners also enjoyed a tour of AEP Polymers’ laboratories, gaining insight into the company’s work in developing bio-based building blocks, polymers and formulations for industrial applications.