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.
These blades would make neat porticos and pergolas.
These blades would make neat porticos and pergolas.
I have heard that solar panels have a lifespan of about 20 years and they are filled with heavy metals so they require hazardous waste disposal
Might as well use the copper coils in those generators in the most cost effective way. Nuclear reactors.
Very well said!
“How does a plastic blade ‘wear out’”
Stress fractures from the slight bending due to torque placed on the blade. The cyclic bending overtime causes the layers of fiber to separate from the resin. UV light in Sunlight, on at least older forms of carbon fiber, can also cause the resin to degrade which accelerates the promulgation of stress fractures. The failure, unlike steel or titanium will bend before breaking is sudden and catastrophic.
It is why aircraft components made of carbon fiber must be x-rayed every so often, the cracks show up on that way but you can’t see them with your eyes. And why carbon fiber and aluminum front forks on bicycles fail and are supposed to be replaced every 18 to 24 months or after a crash or damage to the wheel.
“Shred/grind them up and add them to concrete used in construction”
Environmentalist are starting claim that concrete is environmentally harmful. Producing it causes too much CO2.
Perhaps I am being simplistic...
Those things are pretty aerodynamic...
cut them open, install engines and explosives, along with remote control, and whala!!!
you got yourself an exploding drone warship!!!!
That’s a pile of tax money laying there.How does a large propeller “wear out”? Me thinks the turbine mfrs are just looking for more government largesse.
I wonder if the pellets would be suitable as aggregate for concrete applications. Or perhaps added to asphalt for roads.
“Burn the damn things after chopping them up.”
Wonder how the tonnage of fiberglass used for wind turbines compares with the tonnage used for other things. Here’s a list from Wikipedia:
DIY bows / youth recurve; longbows
Pole vaulting poles
Equipment handles(Hammers, axes, etc.)
Traffic lights
Ship hulls
Rowing shells and oars
Waterpipes
Helicopter rotor blades
Surfboards,[18] tent poles
Gliders, kit cars, microcars, karts, bodyshells, kayaks, flat roofs, lorries
Pods, domes and architectural features where a light weight is necessary
Auto body parts, and entire auto bodies (e.g. Sabre Sprint, Lotus Elan, Anadol, Reliant, Quantum Quantum Coupé, Chevrolet Corvette and Studebaker Avanti, and DMC DeLorean underbody)
Antenna covers and structures, such as radomes, UHF broadcasting antennas, and pipes used in hex beam antennas for amateur radio communications
FRP tanks and vessels: FRP is used extensively to manufacture chemical equipment and tanks and vessels. BS4994 is a British standard related to this application.
Most commercial velomobiles
Most printed circuit boards consist of alternating layers of copper and fiberglass FR-4
Large commercial wind turbine blades
RF coils used in MRI scanners
Drum Sets
Sub-sea installation protection covers
Reinforcement of asphalt pavement, as a fabric or mesh interlayer between lifts[19]
Helmets and other protective gear used in various sports
Orthopedic casts[20]
Fiberglass grating is used for walkways on ships and oil rigs, and in factories
Fiber-reinforced composite columns
Water slides
sculpture making
Fish ponds or lining cinder block fish ponds.
“If only one could fashion them into Homeless shelters...”
LOL! I was thinking that, too! There’s got to be some way to make cash off of this, ‘For The Children!’
The article did mention some companies starting up that CAN grind the blades back to pellets for other uses, but it’s still a ways behind the curve.
You’d think they could integrate them into those Hippy ‘Earth Homes’ or straw bale homes - all you need is ‘something’ that takes up space to smear adobe over it; it’s like frosting a cake! ;)
Use them to make artificial reefs in the Gulf Of Mexico.
If you take HWY 97 south out of Biggs Junction, you will see what their doing to the Oregon landscape as well
Another illustration of Moonbats incapable of critical thinking and rational thought.
Great idea on the reefs!
Wisconsin tosses spent Christmas Trees off the bluffs along Lake Michigan to make Fish Habitat.
bkmk
It was 10 degrees here in N Nevada this AM.
Turbines have to be shut down when it gets cold-—lubricants get too stiff & damage the system.
GFS makes ecopolycrete (EPC) from old fiberglass. It's an idea that has been around a while, using additives to strengthen concrete.
Jersey barriers, curbs, railroad ties and even foundations can be made from the material.
Wonder how much extra it costs?
SUGGESTION: Dump them in a volcano.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.