Zorlu Enerji's R&D Project Receives EU Support

EU Support for Zorlu Enerji R&D Project Zorlu Enerji announced that it has qualified for 100 percent grant support for the JIDEP (Joint Industrial Data Exchange Pipeline) project, which was created to recover composite materials through recycling under the Horizon Europe programme. Continuing to develop its growth strategy centered on innovation and R&D, Zorlu Enerji has qualified for 100 percent grant support for the JIDEP (Joint Industrial Data Exchange Pipeline) project it submitted under the Horizon Europe programme, which is the continuation of the Horizon 2020 grant programme established by the European Union to support research, development and innovation projects. The project, which aims to recover composite materials used in many different sectors, particularly the automotive and maritime industries, will directly contribute to the circular economy and waste management.

Major Contributions to the Global Circular Economy

Zorlu Enerji R&D Director Ural Halaçoğlu, noting that JIDEP will be an important platform in delivering more sustainable materials, products, services and solutions at a time when the world is shifting to a circular economy model, stated: "JIDEP is fundamentally a research and development project that will be conducted with 13 partners from 7 countries in total. In this sense, the products we will develop will also be tested in a laboratory environment. Our project will essentially be a platform containing data on raw materials that can be obtained and reused through recycling of composite materials, which are high-performance engineering materials. To give an example, after composite materials used as blade materials in wind turbines are recycled, if they have the appropriate composition, they are used for production purposes in various sectors such as maritime, automotive and information technology. Through the platform that will be created with this project, many players from different sectors will be able to meet on a platform and convey their needs, and manufacturers who want to use these recycled raw materials will be able to access the data platform and obtain the raw materials they need from the platform. Through the work we will do on this platform, we will make major contributions to both sectors and the circular economy," he said.

Major Economic Benefits from Wind Turbine Blade Reuse

Noting that Turkey has been constructing wind energy plants for over 20 years and that there are many turbine blades that have been or will be completed at this point, Halaçoğlu referenced the May 2020 'Acceleration Wind Turbine Blade Circularity' report by WindEurope, which projected that 14,000 turbine blades (40,000-60,000 tonnes) would be decommissioned in Turkey by 2023, and continued: "The 355 wind power plants located in our country currently have an installed capacity of 10.6 GW. In the coming years, recycling and reusing the blades that will reach the end of their service life in these plants, as an alternative to burying or burning them in the ground, will provide major environmental and economic benefits to the sector. As a company, we aim to directly contribute to the circular economy and waste management by transmitting information to the platform regarding the recycling and reuse of wind turbine blades that have reached the end of their service life at our Gökçedağ Wind Energy Plant, which we operate," he said.