SDG Connect | Vestas Challenge: Circular Renewable Energy
This Challenge sought solutions for the designing and decommissioning of turbine blades, helping Vestas lower their environmental footprint and improve their circular economy practices.
Challenge Launch: September 2020
A Circular Approach to Renewable Energy
This Challenge sought solutions for the designing and decommissioning of turbine blades, helping Vestas-one of the largest wind turbine manufacturers in the world-lower their environmental footprint and improve their circular economy practices.
Since winning, ZILA Works have signed an NDA with Vestas and has found that their solution has the potential for a 60 per cent reduction in carbon footprint compared to petroleum-based epoxies at pilot scale.
Learn more about this Challenge below.
Challenge Statement & Opportunity
The Challenge sought innovative solutions to:
- Identify fully recyclable solutions that can be used in Vestas’ next generation production of wind turbine blades to support a circular approach to renewable energy generation.
- Identify opportunities for greater separation of materials in decommissioned wind turbine blades, and for additional applications within other industries using the separated, recycled materials.
Winners had the opportunity to run pilot projects, and potentially collaborate with Vestas on further technology development.
Solutions & Winners
ZILA BioWorks and PointSource Processing were selected as the Challenge winners.
ZILA Works has a novel approach to creating a patented. Their 100 per cent BPA free bio-epoxy resin made from hempseed oils can be used in composites and other industrial applications.
Pointsource Processing has a two stage process for milling resin, using a chemical-free process called ‘soft-milling’ where material is suspended in the air while it drops down through a vertical mill can reduce fibres to two-three inches.
Following a diligent research, marketing, and evaluation effort, Vestas is pleased to announce we will be exploring further opportunities with ZILA Works and PointSource Processing.
Both companies offer novel technologies with the potential to transform how wind turbines are made and recycled.
The Partner
Vestas is pioneering the energy industry on sustainable energy solutions. Vestas designs, manufactures, installs, and services wind turbines across the globe, and with +117 GW of wind turbines in 81 countries, they have installed more wind power than anyone else.
Through their industry-leading smart data capabilities and +104 GW of wind turbines under service, they use data to interpret, forecast, and exploit wind resources and deliver best-in-class wind power solutions. Together with their customers, suppliers and partners, Vestas’ more than 25,000 employees are bringing the world sustainable energy solutions to power a bright future.
Vestas worked in partnership with the Trade Commissioner Service (TSC) Embassy of Canada to Denmark and Foresight to coordinate and fund the challenge.
The Trade Commissioner Service is pleased to have worked with Foresight to identify two made-in-Canada solutions with the potential to support Vestas’ sustainable development goals.
Sustainability is a global challenge and linking innovative solutions to the places where they can have the most impact is key to achieving our global goals.
Challenge Background & Considerations
Vestas is the energy industry’s global partner in sustainable energy solutions. They ran this Challenge to identify fully recyclable solutions that could be used in Vestas’ next-generation production of wind turbine blades to support a circular approach to renewable energy generation.
The SDG Connect program supports the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The SDGs addressed by this Challenge are:
- Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7)
- Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12)
Challenge Outcomes
Around the time of the Challenge launch, ZILA BioWorks was focused on the outdoor sporting goods industry when potential investors told them they needed to expand beyond such a small and niche market.
Since winning, they are working close with Vestas, who has been established as a potential customer in a 3-5 year timeline.
1
Business Progress
Since winning, ZILA BioWorks has continued to raise both grants and equity investments. To date, ZILA BioWorks has raised US$2.9M, including US$1.1M of that in non-dilutive grants.
ZILA BioWorks continues to build out its team, partners, and supply chain to move towards commercialization.
2
Technological Progress
After winning the Vestas Innovation Challenge, ZILA BioWorks formulated their bio-epoxy resin for wind turbine blades. Not only did the bio-resin perform better than a traditional petroleum-based epoxy, in the lab ZILA BioWorks was able to demonstrate the recyclability of both the bio-epoxy and carbon fibres in full length tact providing a potential end-of-life scenario that aligns with the circular economy.
ZILA BioWorks is now part of the Shell GameChanger Accelerator Powered by NREL for our wind turbine blade formulation. This accelerator will move ZILA BioWorks through advanced mechanical and process manufacturing testing to ultimately build and test a 1-meter wind turbine blade at the National Wind Technology Center in Colorado.
3
Environmental Progress
A 3rd party Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) found that ZILA BioWorks’ bio-resin has the potential for a 60 per cent reduction in carbon footprint compared to petroleum-based epoxies at pilot scale.
The LCA only included the carbon sequestered in the seed oil, not taking into account potential benefits from full crop utilization, carbon sequestered in the soil, or recyclability enabled by ZILA BioWorks' unique chemistry.
ZILA BioWorks continues to invest in learning more about LCA work internally with the intention of being able to understand environmental impacts of all the materials in their formulations at the design stage.
Their goal is to eventually achieve net zero and possibly even carbon-negative resin systems.
Updates
February 2024: Outcomes
Since the Challenge, ZILA BioWorks are working closely with Vestas, and continue to meet regularly with the Vestas team, sharing progress of the technology. Vestas has been established as a potential customer in a 3-5 year timeline (see Challenge Outcomes for details).
March 2021: Winners Announced
ZILA BioWorks and PointSource Processing were selected as the Challenge winners. Immediately following the Challenge, Vestas worked with both to explore mentorship and one-to-one support for their technologies.
September 2020: Challenge Launches
Foresight is delighted to see the interest generated by this industry challenge and the innovative solutions generated by Pointsource Processing and ZILA Works.
Programs like the SDG Connect Challenge with Vestas are an important way to accelerate the adoption of cleantech solutions that will advance the global transition to a green economy.
Our Partners
This SDG Connect Challenge is supported by the Trade Commissioner Service of Canada and is presented as a part of Foresight Canada's powerNEXT program.
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