“My ultimate aspiration is to bring to market a series of services for renewable asset owners, that help them manage their materials in the most sustainable way,” says Ben Lester, Market Development Lead at EMR Renewables.
Though a recent arrival at EMR, Ben has nearly thirty years’ experience in leadership roles at waste management firm Veolia. There, he partnered with companies such as British Steel, Siemens, and GSK to steer R&D projects (including solvent toll recovery and PET closed loop systems) into successful commercial operations. This has given him the skills and experience required to navigate EMR through one of its most ambitious projects to date:
“Across the company, EMR is venturing into a huge range of new and groundbreaking technologies. The idea is that these will eventually become part of our day-to-day business activities which have made EMR a world-leading metal recycler for more than 70 years. So, just as it is investing in reusable steel and EV battery recycling, the team I have joined is exploring management opportunities for repurposing or recycling wind turbines and solar PV panels.”
This task comes with its challenges. While a typical turbine tower, made from high-quality steel, can quickly re-enter the circular economy, processing turbine blades – constructed from a mixture of balsa wood and fiberglass – is much more complex:
“A big part of my role is identifying sustainable solutions for decommissioned turbines and their hard-to-recycle blades – as well as establishing routes for solar PV panels, as there aren't really any at scale treatment technologies currently available in the UK. Demand from our customers for sustainable treatment or recycling solutions is going to start to grow fast in the next year or two, as the first assets begin to reach end-of-life and at EMR we want to be ahead of the game.”Fortunately, the suite of options available to EMR and its partners is already increasing at pace – a fact that has become obvious to Ben in his short time with the company.
“Within the past couple of months, one firm has begun to use shredded turbines blades for the manufacture of extruded products, such as scaffolding boards. But we are also looking within EMR’s innovation team and exploring whether the components and properties of these blades means they could be used as alternative raw materials for cement production and other construction materials.”
While EMR is busy working alongside a host of innovative start-ups, engineering firms and specialist recyclers to build up this range of available options, Ben says managing stakeholders’ expectations may prove to be the biggest challenge of all:
“We might find ourselves in a position where customers want X, but the market can only do Y. We will need to make sure that our customers understand that we are working towards their best solution, but it might not be available yet.”
That said, the scope of what’s possible has already transformed so much for the EMR Renewables team. Earlier this year, EMR opened their advanced Wind Turbine Processing Centre at its EMR Glasgow South Street site. The facility can accept every part of a decommissioned wind turbine and has achieved a permit to receive and store the hard-to-recycle blades.
The team has also spearheaded the Re-Rewind partnership, which aims to create a circular supply chain for the rare earth magnets used within most modern wind turbines.
In fact, it is this same spirit of innovation and continual improvement that first convinced Ben to join EMR.
“What’s really impressed me is that EMR has committed to this new role whilst the market is still in its early stage but wants to be proactive in solving customer problems converting hard to recycle materials into low carbon sustainable secondary materials. It’s like a fast-track R&D role but, in my case, I will build the commercial opportunities quickly and make sure the solutions we offer customers are the right ones for their business and for the planet.”
