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A DIFFERENT TERRITORY
EMR has appointed Andy Hearl as Renewables Operations and Projects Manager, as the business accelerates its role in turning end-of-life renewable assets into the materials needed for the next generation of clean energy.
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With wind capacity expanding rapidly across the UK and Europe, asset owners and operators face growing pressure to recover value from retired turbines, meet tightening decommissioning requirements and secure access to critical materials for future builds.
Andy’s appointment comes at a pivotal time to strengthen EMR’s capability to meet that challenge at scale.
Eve Andrews, Head of Renewables at EMR, said: “Andy’s appointment comes at an important moment for the renewables sector. As more turbines reach the end of their operational life, the industry needs scalable, practical solutions to recover materials and keep them in circulation. Andy brings deep operational knowledge from across the wind sector, and his experience will be invaluable as we expand EMR’s capabilities and help the industry close the loop on renewable infrastructure.”
“Renewable energy can’t just be about what happens while the turbines are spinning,” says Andy. “If we’re serious about the transition, we have to take responsibility for what happens at the end of an asset’s life too. That means ensuring the materials used to build these turbines stay in circulation.”
A mechanical engineer by background, Andy brings a hands-on operational approach and extensive experience across the wind sector. Before joining EMR, he was Blades Operations Manager at 1 Stop Wind Ltd, leading turbine repair and maintenance operations across the UK, Europe and the US.
Based at EMR’s Wind Turbine Processing Centre in Glasgow — the company’s specialist hub for wind turbine reuse, repurposing and recycling — Andy will focus on scaling proven solutions to support the industry’s transition from first-generation to next-generation infrastructure.
“In the next few years, we need to build more renewable capacity than exists today — and that requires huge amounts of material,” Andy says. “The answer isn’t digging new holes in the ground. It’s making the most of the assets already standing in our fields. That’s where EMR comes in.”
Andy will also play a key role in ensuring EMR stays aligned with emerging turbine designs and evolving material use, as manufacturers increasingly build recyclability and circularity into new assets.
“Manufacturers are starting to design turbines with end-of-life in mind — new resins, new composites, new approaches,” he says. “Our job is to make sure those materials don’t become tomorrow’s waste problem, but tomorrow’s supply.”
“Reuse, repair and maintenance extend asset life, but eventually every turbine reaches a point where recycling is the only option,” he adds. “When that happens, the value shouldn’t stop. When the blades stop spinning, the materials should keep circulating.”
Since joining EMR, Andy says he has been struck by the scale and ambition of the wider business, including its investment in research and development and growing capabilities across other future-facing sectors.
“EMR isn’t just reacting to the renewables challenge — it’s building the infrastructure the circular economy actually needs,” he says. “Through programmes such as CREEM, we’re developing new ways to recover critical materials like rare earth elements that are used across renewable technologies. The challenges of recovering these materials are similar across sectors, so the work happening in one area can directly help accelerate solutions in another.”
Looking ahead, Andy’s focus is firmly on growth in impact, capability and geography.
“My ambition is to build EMR’s renewables recycling operations into a scalable and sustainable part of the business,” he says. “That means taking what we’re doing in Glasgow and rolling it out across the UK, into Europe and beyond.”
“The speed of acceleration down the road to net zero depends on how we handle today’s assets,” he adds. “And that’s what makes this role so exciting.”
