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Worn Out Wind Turbine Blades Are Piling Up in Landfills Because They Can’t Be Recycled
Return To Now Blog ^ | October 26, 2020 | Return To Now Staff

Posted on 10/26/2020 8:03:05 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin

In an epic case of poor foresight, the “clean, green” wind industry forgot to come up with a plan for what to do with wind turbine blades after they stop working.

Like all things, they get old and stop functioning properly after a while, but the plastic used to make them lasts virtually “forever.”

The industry has found ways to recycle the steel used to build the towers, but not the fiberglass (a type of plastic) used to build the blades of the high-tech windmills.

Now that the first generation of wind turbines has reached the end of their “lives,” tens of thousands of blades the size of Boeing 747 wings are coming down for burial in giant graveyards we call landfills (12,000 a year in the U.S. and Europe alone).

And that’s just a fraction of what’s to come. These dying turbines were built over a decade ago, “when installations were less than a fifth of what they are now,” Bloomberg reports.

That means there will be more than 5 times as many (hundreds of thousands) being retired over the next decade.

Because they are “built to withstand hurricane-force winds, the blades can’t easily be crushed, recycled or repurposed,” Bloomberg notes.

“That’s created an urgent search for alternatives in places that lack wide-open prairies.”

There are only a handful of landfills that accept them in the U.S. in Iowa and South Dakota.

After being cut into three pieces so they can fit on a truck, they are transported thousands of miles to these junk cemeteries and buried in stacks 30-feet deep.

“The wind turbine blade will be there, ultimately, forever,” Bob Cappadona of Veolia Environnement SA told Bloomberg. “Most landfills are considered a dry tomb.”

A Texas startup called Global Fiberglass Solutions has developed a method to break down blades and press them into pellets and fiber boards to be used for flooring and walls.

“We can process 99.9% of a blade and handle about 6,000 to 7,000 blades a year per plant,” said Chief Executive Officer Don Lilly. “When we start to sell to more builders, we can take in a lot more of them. We’re just gearing up.”

Until demand for the company’s product increases, the blades will continue to make the long haul to the landfills in cities that are paid up to $675,000 to store them indefinitely.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Science
KEYWORDS: environment; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; turbine; windpower
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To: oldplayer

Yeah. We subsidize the use of them so why not? No doubt China Joe would be okay with it. It’s green after all. Maybe make Hunter the blade czar.


21 posted on 10/26/2020 8:21:55 AM PDT by rktman ( #My2ndAmend! ----- Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

If you ever here environmentalists say that “wind power is now cost-competitive with gas, coal or nuclear” - just remember they are very likely not including costs to build back up supply when the wind doesn’t blow, costs in later years when efficiency drops (by about 3-4% per year for windmills), costs of decommissioning and removal, and of course, costs of disposal.


22 posted on 10/26/2020 8:22:01 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: RayChuang88

I was referring to the manufacturing process.


23 posted on 10/26/2020 8:22:52 AM PDT by rktman ( #My2ndAmend! ----- Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

The disposal issues aside; I wonder why these components have such a short life-cycle. I would expect they should last 5 decades or more. Seems like there is more to this.


24 posted on 10/26/2020 8:23:00 AM PDT by Damifino (The true measure of a man is found in what he would do if he knew no one would ever find out.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Burn the damn things after chopping them up. Fiberglass burns quite easily. Burn them in a closed environment and use scrubbers to take care of the NO and do not worry about the CO2 which is plant food.


25 posted on 10/26/2020 8:23:42 AM PDT by cpdiii (cane cutter, deckhand, roughhneck, geologist, pilot, pharmacist, old man, CONSTITUTION TO DIE FOR)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

They should be repurposed into suppositories for politicians.


26 posted on 10/26/2020 8:23:42 AM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: BipolarBob

Guess he means high-paying jobs in the landfill industry.


27 posted on 10/26/2020 8:24:10 AM PDT by aposiopetic
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

When I was training new managers one of the things I pounded into their heads was to continually ask the question: “Then what.”

In this case it would have been, “What is the life of one of these things”

“The life is about 20 years for the fiberglass blades.”

“THEN WHAT HAPPENS?”

People don’t go too far down these roads, and then it bites them in the ass.

Think about Joe Biden’s massive “Covid testing” where everyone can get tested immediately, for free.

Then what happens?

Think about what happens when these tests are all over the place. What do you do with that information?

The path that takes us down can be kind of scary.


28 posted on 10/26/2020 8:25:51 AM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: MV=PY; Leaning Right
They are kind of an awkward shape to build a house out of.


29 posted on 10/26/2020 8:26:07 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: Old Yeller

Send them to Joe and Kamala, COD of course.


30 posted on 10/26/2020 8:26:12 AM PDT by antidemoncrat (Biden's)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Grind them up and burn them. Lots of BTU value.


31 posted on 10/26/2020 8:26:27 AM PDT by Fzob
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

How does a plastic blade ‘wear out’


32 posted on 10/26/2020 8:26:29 AM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing obamacare is worse than obamacare itself)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Fill the Blades with Rebar and Concrete then use them to construct the Border Wall.


33 posted on 10/26/2020 8:26:48 AM PDT by Kickass Conservative (THEY LIVE, and we're the only ones wearing the Sunglasses.)
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To: BipolarBob

They won’t understand the purpose. They will therefore declare that they were used in religious ceremonies. It’s what archaeologists do whenever they are stumped.


34 posted on 10/26/2020 8:27:30 AM PDT by pepsi_junkie (Often wrong, but never in doubt!)
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To: Old Yeller

Shred/grind them up and add them to concrete used in construction


35 posted on 10/26/2020 8:27:57 AM PDT by CJinVA
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

So green, So energy efficient. As any Eagle or Bat on the forest floor.


36 posted on 10/26/2020 8:28:27 AM PDT by Shady (It is the rule of law vs tyranny, plain and simple, and it is the fight of our lives...)
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To: MV=PY

Dessert topping!!


37 posted on 10/26/2020 8:29:08 AM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing obamacare is worse than obamacare itself)
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To: oldplayer

Or, Why not make Tesla Charging Stations out of them, no...wait..


38 posted on 10/26/2020 8:30:00 AM PDT by Shady (It is the rule of law vs tyranny, plain and simple, and it is the fight of our lives...)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Can’t remember where I saw it.

Someone posted a list of how much oil wind turbines use. Wish I could find it again.

Anybody got any idea where I might look?


39 posted on 10/26/2020 8:30:58 AM PDT by N. Theknow (Kennedys-Can't drive, can't ski, can't fly, can't skipper a boat-But they know what's best for you.)
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To: Army Air Corps

I was thinking they could somehow be used to make tiny houses for the homeless. Better yet, teach some of the homeless how to make the tiny houses with the blades.


40 posted on 10/26/2020 8:31:37 AM PDT by NEMDF
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