- Endesa and Holcim have conducted an industrial trial during the repowering of Endesa’s wind farm in Aldeavieja (Ávila), using concrete that integrates crushed fibres from dismantled wind turbine blades.
Taking a decisive step toward a circular economy in the energy sector, this Endesa’s wind farm has become the first facility in Europe of its kind to reuse dismantled components to build new infrastructure. For the first time ever, structural concrete made with recycled fibre from decommissioned wind turbine blades has been used.
Endesa repowered this facility by replacing 22 ageing turbines with 4 new-generation wind turbines—increasing installed capacity from 14.5 MW to 24 MW. The repowering work was carried out adhering to the zero-waste objective, giving a second life to all removed components, either by selling them as spare parts or recycling them.
This approach represents a key milestone. Therefore, it makes this project a European benchmark by reusing blades from other dismantled wind farms in the foundation of new infrastructure for power evacuation. The blades were cut into transportable sections, crushed into aggregate material, and then used in new structural concrete, which has already been applied in the foundation of a slab inside the wind farm.
Pilar Lara, head of Endesa’s repowering project in Aldeavieja, explained, ‘Aldeavieja is now the first wind farm in Europe to close its own life cycle by using structural waste for its repowering. This circular economy integration not only reduces waste and emissions—it also minimises raw material extraction at the source and avoids unnecessary transportation.’
This milestone is part of the European Blades2Build project, led by an international consortium of 14 partners, including Endesa and Holcim. The consortium aims to provide real, scalable solutions to a challenge that—until now—lacked a viable circular approach.
Wind turbines reach the end of their life after 25 to 30 years of operation. While many components can be recycled, the blades—made of composite materials—have traditionally ended up in landfills. Still, thanks to innovations from Blades2Build, this technical barrier has now been overcome.
Innovation in concrete circularity
The technical development was led by the Holcim Innovation Center (Lyon) and Holcim Spain’s Specialty Concrete Lab in Alcobendas (Madrid). Together, they created a pioneering formula that incorporates recycled wind turbine blade fibres as a partial substitute for natural aggregates.
In this sense, Holcim is driving innovation as a central pillar of its solutions portfolio, positioning itself as a strategic partner for sustainable construction. A prime example is this new concrete, which is part of the ECOPact range and was developed using the ECOCycle platform. This groundbreaking technology allows the incorporation of recycled materials from various sources, including demolition debris, industrial by-products, and even complex composite materials like wind turbine blades. ‘At Holcim, as a global leader in sustainable and innovative construction solutions, we’ve successfully designed a structural concrete using innovative additives derived from crushed blades, aligned with our goal to build better with less,’ said Víctor Pacheco, Innovation Process Manager at Holcim.
A scalable industrial model for sustainable construction
Beyond innovation, this project represents a new path for sustainable wind farm repowering in Europe. Cross-sector collaboration and the real-world application of circular technologies are key to scaling this model and driving construction practices with a lower environmental footprint in the energy sector.
Jointly developed by Holcim and Endesa under the Blades2Build project, the initiative places Spain at the forefront of the circular economy in renewable energy, integrating R&D, industry, and circularity to give waste a new life.
The Aldeavieja project has received support through investment grant programmes for wind farm repowering, specifically the ‘circular repowering programmes’ under the recovery, transformation, and resilience plan—funded by the European Union–NextGenerationEU. It was awarded €6.51 million in funding by the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE). The Aldeavieja wind farm is expected to begin testing in October 2025, with full operation scheduled by the end of the same month.