Renewable Parts Prove Circular Economy Concept with US Utility
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A recent project with an energy provider in Texas outlines the less tangible benefits of buying recirculated goods

HOUSTON - Txylo -- Renewable Parts have been working with utilities in the UK and Europe for over a decade, but recently the US branch of the business had the opportunity to share the benefits or using recirculated component parts with a US-based energy provider - showing that these go much further than simply cost and lead time.

Replicating the UK business model stateside was always going to be complex, but the fundamentals of establishing a circular economy by setting prices for refurbished goods and arranging reverse logistics are similar and, as a result, one West Texas site is able to access the less tangible benefits.

At a site where there are over 200 Siemens 1.3 turbines the operator has been working to reduce cost and lead time on 2 key components that fail in significant volumes – the yaw drive and the yaw motor.

Bespoke, reusable packaging has helped with reverse logistics, and the parts themselves are now stock in Texas for Renewable Parts USA, priced well below the new equivalent - but the real benefits are not so easy to see at first glance.

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Firstly, the new equivalent parts can have up to a 1-year lead time. In the case of yaw drive gearboxes, this meant the turbine operator had to hold over 80 units at site to avoid running out. The solution was for the site to reduce their stock holding to a minimum of 12, maximum of 20, remanufactured units - with the assurance that stock holding at Renewable Parts' workshop in Humble, Texas would support these levels. When stock hits 12 units more are dispatched from stock to the site. The difference in stock holding at site will see a saving of over $250k in value.

In addition, new units are packed 1 unit per pallet. In that same footprint, 4 of the remanufactured units are packed on a reusable frame - so with the new stock holding set to 20 units, there is the opportunity for the turbine operator to reduce the space allocated to yaw drives from 80 pallet spaces to a maximum of 5!

Then there is the benefit of data gathered from defective units, which were previously scrapped. Renewable Parts is able to gather data on the failures and use this to help the site, including a proposal for retrofit kits to extend the life of the drives in the first place. On the yaw drives, for example, Renewable Parts have already made a design improvement which has seen a 10% reduction in failures against the new equivalent.

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Given the annual consumption data at site, the carbon equivalent saving on the two selected components alone will be upwards of 100 tons per year.

Renewable Parts is a pioneering organisation proactively working to de-carbonise the wind industry since 2011. They recirculate components for turbines that would normally be sent to scrap and landfill, and they help to maximise turbine uptime by reducing lead times through their experienced supply chain network. Read the full story at https://www.renewable-parts.com