RWE on track to construct Thor wind farm with CO2-reduced steel, RecyclableBlades

Thor installation. Source | RWE/Niklas Marc Heinecke

RWE (Essen, Germany) announced in early April 2026 that it has installed an offshore wind turbine featuring a CO_₂-reduced steel tower and recyclable composite rotor blades. The development supports the construction of Thor, a 1.1-gigawatt offshore wind farm being put up off Denmark’s west coast; a total of 72 wind turbines — each with a capacity of up to 15 megawatts — will be installed by the end of 2026. Half of them will be equipped with steel towers produced with a lower carbon footprint, while 40 turbines will feature a total of 120 recyclable rotor blades. 

“Offshore wind already has one of the lowest life cycle carbon footprints of power generation technologies,” says Sven Utermöhlen, CEO of RWE Offshore Wind. “At RWE, our ambition is to go even further.”

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RWE says it is the first company to use Siemens Gamesa’s (Zamudio, Spain) GreenTower. Tower plates are made from steel that produces at least 63% lower CO_₂ emissions than conventional steel. The certified production process limits emissions by using renewable-powered furnaces and scrap steel, for example.

In addition, Thor will feature Siemens’ RecyclableBlade technology, which has gone “from promise to practice,” says Marc Becker, senior VP of Siemens Gamesa Offshore. The company first announced RecyclableBlade’s development back in 2021, and has since brought the circular composite blade — which can be separated and reused, for instance, in new casting applications in the automotive or consumer goods industries — to RWE’s offshore wind farms Kaskasi in Germany and Sofia in the U.K. 

The Thor wind farm is progressing according to plan. In 2025, the offshore substation and all foundations were successfully installed. Turbine installation is well underway. When fully operational in 2027, Thor will be capable of producing enough green electricity to supply the equivalent of more than 1 million Danish households.

Thor offshore wind farm is a joint project between RWE (51%) and Norges Bank Investment Management (49%). RWE is in charge of construction and operations throughout the life cycle of Thor.