Acciona launches shoes made from recycled wind turbine blades

The sneakers are a collaboration with Spanish fashion brand El Ganso and launched at the brand’s store in Madrid. 

The shoes feature a graphic image of a wind turbine on the inner sole and were made using a 23-metre-long blade from the 36.84MW Aibar wind farm in Navarra, Spain. 

Acciona said the process involved breaking down the size of fiberglass and epoxy resins used in turbine blade down to microns using an “advanced mechanical transformation process”. The resulting powder is then combined with rubber to make the shoes. 

The product was made weeks after Acciona announced it was launching a blade recycling plant in Navarra, Spain. 

Blade recycling is considered among the key challenges to promoting sustainability and circularity in the wind industry.

Commonly recycled materials like steel make up most of the composition in a typical wind turbine — between 80-90%. 

However, turbine blades are much more difficult to recycle because they are generally made of composite blends of materials like fibreglass and epoxy resin, and are designed to remain intact amid the massive environmental and kinetic forces wind turbines are subject to.

Acciona said the ‘El Ganso x Acciona’ shoes will be available for sale through El Ganso’s official website and at its stores.

Acciona sold its wind turbine manufacturing business to Germany-based Nordex in 2016 and remains a shareholder in Nordex.