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A wind turbine blade manufactured by LM Wind Power arrives at the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult in Blyth, England, on August 15, 2019.
Tom White | Getty Images News | Getty Images

GE’s renewable energy unit said Tuesday it would manufacture zero waste wind turbine blades by the year 2030, becoming the latest operator in the sector to try to develop more sustainable production processes.

In a statement, GE Renewable Energy said its Denmark-headquartered LM Wind Power subsidiary would “reuse, repurpose, recycle or recover all the excess materials from manufacturing of blades, giving up on landfilling and incineration as waste management solutions.”

The LM Wind Power announcement only relates to waste from the manufacturing process and does not cover what happens to the blades when their service life ends.

The firm is looking to address the latter in a number of ways. It is part of the DecomBlades consortium, an initiative focused on blade recycling and made up of several major players in the industry.

It’s also involved in ZEBRA, or the Zero Waste Blade Research project, which is focused on the design and manufacture of fully recyclable wind turbine blades.

The issue of what to do with wind turbine blades when they’re no longer needed has become a headache for the industry. This is because the composite materials that blades are made from can prove difficult to recycle, meaning many end up as landfill when their service life ends.

As governments around the world attempt to ramp up their renewable energy capacity, the number of wind turbines worldwide only looks set to grow, which will in turn increase pressure on the sector to find sustainable and manageable solutions for the disposal of blades.

Against this backdrop, industry body WindEurope has said it wants a “Europe-wide landfill ban on decommissioned wind turbine blades by 2025” while a number of companies have sought to develop their own solutions to the challenge.   

In September, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy launched what it claimed were “the world’s first recyclable wind turbine blades ready for commercial use offshore.”

A few months earlier, in June, Denmark’s Orsted said it would “reuse, recycle, or recover” all turbine blades in its worldwide portfolio of wind farms once decommissioned.

The same month saw GE Renewable Energy and cement manufacturer Holcim strike a deal to explore the recycling of wind turbine blades.

And in January 2020, Vestas said it was aiming to produce “zero-waste” wind turbines by the year 2040.

All the above examples can be seen as efforts to develop a so-called circular economy, which the EU has called “a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible.”

Wind energy is one of many industries attempting to develop approaches connected to the idea of a circular economy. Just this month, Swedish battery firm Northvolt said it had produced its first battery cell with what it described as “100% recycled nickel, manganese and cobalt.”

In a statement, the company — which has attracted investment from Goldman Sachs and Volkswagen, among others — said the cell’s nickel-manganese-cobalt cathode had been produced using metals “recovered through the recycling of battery waste.”

Tests showed that performance was on a par with cells made using metals that had been freshly mined, Northvolt said.

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Genesis GV90 leaks as breathtaking ultra-luxe SUV with coach doors [Video]

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Genesis GV90 leaks as breathtaking ultra-luxe SUV with coach doors [Video]

Genesis is gearing up to launch the stunning new flagship SUV. Ahead of its official debut, the GV90 leaked during an internal presentation, revealing our first look at the ultra-luxe electric SUV.

Genesis GV90 leak reveals coach doors and more

The GV90 is arriving as the largest, most luxurious Genesis SUV to date. Based on the Neolun Concept, the new flagship SUV will sit above the GV80 as Genesis expands into new segments.

As Genesis calls it, the “ultra-luxe, state-of-the-art SUV” stole the spotlight at the New York Auto Show last March.

It wasn’t the stunning, reductive design inspired by Korea’s moon-shaped porcelain jars or the premium Royal Indigo and Purple silk materials that caught most people’s attention at the event, but the B-pillarless coach doors.

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The SUV was showcased with Rolls-Royce-like coach doors, offering a new level of luxury for Genesis. Although we’ve seen the GV90 spotted out in public testing a few times now with coach doors, we wondered if they would make it to the production model.

Genesis-GV90-leak-coach-doors
The Genesis Neolun electric SUV concept, a preview of the GV90 (Source: Genesis)

After the full-size SUV reportedly leaked during an internal presentation, it looks like we’ve found our answer. The Genesis GV90 leak reveals two versions: a standard model and a coach-door model.

The leaked images from our friends at ShortsCar offer our first look at the production version in full. Earlier this month, a GV90 prototype was spotted out in public with the coach doors wide open, providing a sneak peek of the interior.

From what was shown, the cabin will feature a similar layout to the concept, with high-end purple and indigo materials. The GV90 was also caught with an all-black interior, which is expected to be the standard version.

A new video from the folks over at HealerTV offers a closer look at the breathtaking interior ahead of its official debut.

The GV90 appears to retain the gear selector located near the top of the steering wheel from the Neolun concept.

Another report, from TheKoreanCarBlog, confirms the new gear selector after the first interior spy shots surfaced.

From what we’ve seen so far, the GV90 is shaping up to be a near replica of the ultra-luxe Neolun concept. Genesis has yet to announce a launch date for the GV90, but it is expected to make an official debut by the end of the year with sales starting in mid-2026.

Prices and final specs, like driving range, will be revealed closer to launch, but the Genesis GV90 is rumoured to be the first vehicle to ride on Hyundai’s new eM platform.

Hyundai said the new platform will deliver a 50% improvement in range compared to its current E-GMP-based EVs, such as the IONIQ 5. It’s also expected to offer Level 3 autonomous driving as well as other advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) features.

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Battery storage hits $65/MWh – a tipping point for solar

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Battery storage hits /MWh – a tipping point for solar

Turning cheap daytime solar into electricity you can actually use at night just got a lot cheaper. A new analysis from energy think tank Ember shows that utility-scale battery storage costs have fallen to $65 per megawatt-hour (MWh) as of October 2025 in markets outside China and the US. At that level, pairing solar with batteries to deliver power when it’s needed is now economically viable.

Battery storage costs have fallen dramatically over the past two years, and the decline continues. Following a steep decline in 2024, Ember’s analysis indicates that prices continued to fall sharply again in 2025.

The findings are based on real-world data from recent battery and solar-plus-storage auctions in Italy, Saudi Arabia, and India, as well as interviews with active developers across global markets.

According to Ember, the cost of a whole, grid-connected utility-scale battery storage system for long-duration projects (four hours or more) is now about $125 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) as of October 2025. That figure applies to projects outside China and the US. Core battery equipment delivered from China costs around $75/kWh, while installation and grid connection typically add another $50/kWh.

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Those lower upfront costs have pushed down the levelized cost of storage (LCOS) to just $65/MWh. Ember’s calculation reflects real-world assumptions around financing costs, system lifetime, efficiency, and battery degradation.

Cheaper hardware isn’t the only reason storage costs are falling. Longer battery lifetimes, higher efficiencies, and lower financing costs, helped by clearer revenue models such as auctions, have all contributed to the sharp drop in LCOS. Ember has published a live calculator alongside the report, allowing users to estimate LCOS using their own assumptions.

Why this matters comes down to how solar is actually used. Most solar power is generated during the day, so only a portion needs to be stored to make it dispatchable. Ember estimates that if half of daytime solar generation is shifted to nighttime, the $65/MWh storage cost adds about $33/MWh to the cost of solar electricity.

With the global average price of solar at $43/MWh in 2024, adding storage would bring the total cost to about $76/MWh, delivering power in a way that better matches real demand.

As Ember global electricity analyst Kostantsa Rangelova put it, after a 40% drop in battery equipment costs in 2024, the industry is now on track for another major fall in 2025. The economics of battery storage, she said, are “unrecognizable,” and the industry is still adjusting to this new reality.

“Solar is no longer just cheap daytime electricity; now it’s anytime dispatchable electricity. This is a game-changer for countries with fast-growing demand and strong solar resources,” Rangelova added.

Together, solar and battery storage are increasingly emerging as a scalable, secure, and affordable foundation for future power systems.

Read more: EIA: Solar + storage soar as fossil fuels stall through September 2025


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Podcast: Tesla Optimus fail, Rivian AI/Autonomy day, Mercedes GLB EV, and more

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Podcast: Tesla Optimus fail, Rivian AI/Autonomy day, Mercedes GLB EV, and more

In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss a very telling Tesla Optimus fail, Rivian’s AI/Autonomy day, Mercedes GLB EV, and more.

The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.

As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.

After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:

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We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.

Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:

Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET:

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