Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize Results
This $5.1 million, two-phase competition funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law helped develop a cost-effective and sustainable recycling industry for key wind turbine materials not currently recycled commercially. The Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize launched in July 2023 and concluded in September 2024.
Phase 2: Accelerate
In September 2024, six teams were selected as grand prize winners of the Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize. Each team was awarded $500,000 in cash prizes, as well as vouchers valued at $100,000 to work with DOE national laboratories, for developing cost-effective recycling technologies that will increase the sustainability of U.S. wind energy.
Read the official Phase 2 winner announcement from the U.S. Department of Energy.
| Team (sorted alphabetically) | Location |
|---|---|
| Cimentaire | Houston, Texas |
| Critical Materials Recycling | Boone, Iowa |
| Fletcher Team | Huntington, West Virginia |
| GreenTex Solutions, LLC | Charleston, South Carolina |
| United Standard Materials Corporation | Houston, Texas |
| WIND REWIND | Orono, Maine |
Phase 1: Accelerate!
In Phase 1 of the Wind Turbine Materials Recycling Prize, 20 teams won $75,000 each for their innovative ideas to enhance wind material recycling technologies and processes. Each of the winning teams also received an invitation to move on to the second and final phase of the competition, Accelerate!, during which they developed prototypes of their technologies. Read the official Phase 1 winner announcement from the U.S. Department of Energy.
| Team (sorted alphabetically) | Location |
|---|---|
| A New Fiber Spinning for Composite Recycling | Athens, Georgia |
| A Novel Method for Recycling Neodymium Magnet | Salt Lake City, Utah |
| Blades for Large-Format Additive Manufacturing | Orono, Maine |
| Chemolysis Recycling of All Turbine Blade Material | Albuquerque, New Mexico |
| Circular Mechanical Recycling of Wind Turbines | Charleston, South Carolina |
| Composite Fiber Recovery and Resin Recycling | Amherst, Massachusetts |
| Continuous Chemical Recycling at Ambient Pressure | Pullman, Washington |
| Domestic Rare Earth Recovery from Wind Turbines Using ADR | Boone, Iowa |
| Flash Composite Recycling: Turbine Blades to Silicon Carbide | Houston, Texas |
| Hybrid Composites from Wood and Wind Turbine Blade | Denton, Texas |
| Launching Circular Composite Infrastructure | Knoxville, Tennessee |
| Mobile Onsite Wind Turbine Blade Shredder System | Huntington, West Virginia |
| Mobile Wind Blade Recycling for Concrete | Grand Rapids, Michigan |
| PulseWave Resonance Frequency Recycling Technology | Allen, Texas |
| Rare Earth Element Production with Net-Zero Carbon Emission | West Lafayette, Indiana |
| Recycling Wind Turbine Blades to Asphalt | Lubbock, Texas |
| REEMAG Breakthrough Magnet Recycling | New York City, New York |
| Resin-Bonded Coatings for Concrete | Houston, Texas |
| Re-Wind USA | Atlanta, Georgia |
| RUTE Suntracker Footing | Portland, Oregon |