New Partnership to Extract Rare Earth Magnets from Retired Wind Turbines for Use in New Ones

Sustainable materials specialist, EMR, rare earth magnetic materials recycling company, HyProMag, Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, Magnomatics, and the University of Birmingham have formed a partnership which will focus on extracting the rare earth magnets from end-of-life wind turbines and enabling their use in new wind turbines, both onshore and offshore.

Named Re-Rewind, the partnership, partly funded by Innovate UK, aims to establish the UK’s first circular supply chain for the rare earth magnets used in wind turbines.

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Looking only at the UK, it is anticipated that there will be a 240,000-tonne shortfall of rare earth magnets in 2040 and there is no consistent route to recycle these materials, due to safety, economy and technical challenges in extracting and recycling the magnets, according to Re-Rewind partners, who say their project is set to combat this impending shortage.