Landfilling Turbine Blades
What a disappointing news item:
Wind Turbine Blades Can’t Be Recycled, So They’re Piling Up in Landfills
Companies are searching for ways to deal with the tens of thousands of blades that have reached the end of their lives.
Story here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills
This isn't an old story.
While most of a turbine can be recycled or find a second life on another wind farm, researchers estimate the U.S. will have more than 720,000 tons of blade material to dispose of over the next 20 years, a figure that doesn't include newer, taller higher-capacity versions.
There aren't many options to recycle or trash turbine blades, and what options do exist are expensive, partly because the U.S. wind industry is so young. It's a waste problem that runs counter to what the industry is held up to be: a perfect solution for environmentalists looking to combat climate change, an attractive investment for companies such as Budweiser and Hormel Foods, and a job creator across the Midwest and Great Plains.
(https://www.npr.org/2019/09/10/759376113/unfurling-the-waste-problem-caused-by-wind-energy)
There are potential solutions in the works........
The metals in the blades, mostly steel and copper, can be recycled, U.S. Department of Energy Researcher Daniel Laird told The Des Moines Register. Landfill operators thought cutting the old blades into 40-foot sections would make them simple to crush and compact. It turns out that the blades don’t give up so easily.
In the Netherlands, old blades are cut up into pieces of various sizes and used to create playgrounds and other public outdoor furniture. Some have been configured as park benches with one blade positioned as the seat and another as the back.
According to a report at Chambre 237, researchers in Denmark are working on ways of separating the glass content of the blades from the fiber so that each could be recycled. In Washington state, other researchers have found that when the blades are cut into small pieces they can be used to make a new kind of composite material that could be used to manufacture other products.
(https://247wallst.com/energy-economy/2019/11/19/a-new-problem-for-clean-energy-dealing-with-old-windmill-blades/)
Burying them in the ground where they will stay FOREVER just seems so stupid. Why wasn't this solutioned decades ago when turbines first starting springing up?
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt
Wind Turbine Blades Can’t Be Recycled, So They’re Piling Up in Landfills
Companies are searching for ways to deal with the tens of thousands of blades that have reached the end of their lives.
Story here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills
This isn't an old story.
While most of a turbine can be recycled or find a second life on another wind farm, researchers estimate the U.S. will have more than 720,000 tons of blade material to dispose of over the next 20 years, a figure that doesn't include newer, taller higher-capacity versions.
There aren't many options to recycle or trash turbine blades, and what options do exist are expensive, partly because the U.S. wind industry is so young. It's a waste problem that runs counter to what the industry is held up to be: a perfect solution for environmentalists looking to combat climate change, an attractive investment for companies such as Budweiser and Hormel Foods, and a job creator across the Midwest and Great Plains.
(https://www.npr.org/2019/09/10/759376113/unfurling-the-waste-problem-caused-by-wind-energy)
There are potential solutions in the works........
The metals in the blades, mostly steel and copper, can be recycled, U.S. Department of Energy Researcher Daniel Laird told The Des Moines Register. Landfill operators thought cutting the old blades into 40-foot sections would make them simple to crush and compact. It turns out that the blades don’t give up so easily.
In the Netherlands, old blades are cut up into pieces of various sizes and used to create playgrounds and other public outdoor furniture. Some have been configured as park benches with one blade positioned as the seat and another as the back.
According to a report at Chambre 237, researchers in Denmark are working on ways of separating the glass content of the blades from the fiber so that each could be recycled. In Washington state, other researchers have found that when the blades are cut into small pieces they can be used to make a new kind of composite material that could be used to manufacture other products.
(https://247wallst.com/energy-economy/2019/11/19/a-new-problem-for-clean-energy-dealing-with-old-windmill-blades/)
Burying them in the ground where they will stay FOREVER just seems so stupid. Why wasn't this solutioned decades ago when turbines first starting springing up?
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt
