Circular Business Models in the Wind Industry: Potential Sustainability Benefits and Industrial Challenges

The deployment of wind energy technologies is instrumental to support a sustainable energy transition. However, the manufacturing, operation and end-of-life management of wind turbines (WTs) entail the consumption of a significant amount of energy and material resources contributing to environmental impacts. Thus, much of the ongoing sustainability research on WTs have been concentrated on material innovation (e.g. substitution of rare earth elements in the generators) and technology innovation (e.g. new recycling technologies for blade composites) to increase resource security and efficiency. Nevertheless, there is a lack of research analysing the role circular business models (CBMs) can have in driving implementation of circular economy (CE) strategies for narrowing, slowing and closing resource loops in the wind industry. Accordingly, this paper summarises the key potential sustainability benefits related to 14 CBMs with application to the wind industry, including the main industrial challenges that should be overcome to facilitate the upscaling of sustainable CBMs and value chains. A description of how CBMs can be implemented to support the resource-efficient management of wind energy projects at different stages of development and operation is also provided with the aim of guiding CE-oriented decision-making processes.