Posted on 05/18/2021 5:12:52 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
Wind turbine maker Vestas (VWS.CO) unveiled new technology on Monday which it says enables wind turbine blades to be fully recycled, avoiding the dumping of old blades. Turbine blades are set to account for 43 million tonnes of waste in 2050, according to a 2017 University of Cambridge study. Most blades end up in landfills, because they are hard to recycle. The new technology will "be a significant milestone in enabling a future where landfill is no longer required in blade decommissioning," Allan Poulsen, Vestas' head of sustainability and advanced materials, said in a statement. Turbine blades are made by heating a mix of glass or carbon fibres and sticky epoxy resin, which combines the materials, providing a strong light-weight composite material, but which also make it hard to separate the original materials for recycling. Using the new technology the glass or carbon fibre is separated from the resin and then chemicals further separate the resin into base materials, that are "similar to virgin materials" that can then be used for construction of new blades. Vestas said. The project is a cooperation between Vestas; chemical producer Olin (OLN.N), which produces resin for turbine blades; the Danish Technological Institute, an independent research and technology institute; and Denmark's Aarhus University. The project aims to develop the technology for industrial scale production within three years and also sees potential for the technology to be used for airplane and car components.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
I thought this was an important revelation considering this is one of the major issues with wind turbines once they are no longer serviceable.
Vestas is a Danish company that is one of the largest producers of wind turbines in the world.
I wonder if the heat required to make them and then recycle them comes close to the energy they generate during their operational lifetime?
never give up the con.
Can someone tell me the difference between seeing a windmill and seeing an elec tower?? Which is more efficient and/or more needed.
I wonder what kind of useful material you would get by simply grinding them up. What would happen if you used it instead of sand in concrete?
Useful tech, but I’ve never understood why landfills are much of a concern.
Every landfill in the country combines for a tiny percent of our land, and we’ve become pretty good at turning old ones into parks once they are full.
Didn’t mention the cost for recycling....guessing buying new blades will be cheaper than recycled....next will be a change in the law to require recycled blades....after all, it’s going to save the planet so taxpayers should be happy to fund the scam...
Or in asphalt for roadways?
Understand that these blades are 120 feet long, and never rot, and there are thousands and thousands that have to be replaced every year. It’s becoming impossible to find places that will accept them. I would hazard a guess that the cost for this recycling process is astronomical, and will have to be added to the already extremely high cost of wind energy. Add to that the horrendous number of bird deaths, the cost to the industry (passed on to the consumer and taxpayer-subsidizers) of buying off organizations like Audubon and Sierra Club, not to mention the EXTREMELY important fact that wind turbine fields, by definition, take energy out of the wind, thereby changing...the...climate...downwind, with measurably and noticeably hotter temperatures downwind from before the windmills are installed.
WINDMILLS ARE AN ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE, AND SHOULD BE BANNED!!!!!
Most fiberglass boats are made up of blow in fibers as opposed to laid up mats. Expensive boats are laid up(Hinkley’s).
So, I am sure there are many different uses for ground up fiberglass.
——sticky epoxy resin——
Reuters style book........ always use a descriptive before a noun regardless of how stupid and irrelevant and even wrong the descriptive is
So what do they do with the E-Glass once the epoxy is removed. The glass is probably 75 to 80 percent of the waste. Worked for a company that made fiberglass sucker rods and they were composed of 85% glass and 15% resin. I don’t see the blades being much different.
What is at issue here is the internecine environmentalist feud.
Those who believe the earth is being destroyed by landfills are pitted against those who believe the earth is being saved by epoxy wind turbine blades.
Diversity of environmentalist thinking prohibits both thoughts. Purity of thought is required to achieve the goals
What’s the cost to do this? What’s the end benefit?
-—and will have to be added to the already extremely high cost of wind energy.-—
Sort of like the final resort of the anti nuclear energy crowd. What to do with the clothing of workers who are exposed to radiation from the reactor
Turbine blade waste = nuclear waste
If they can recycle these things into something that has a market value(ground up fiberglass) it MAY rectify one of the major issues with these things.
I did buy stock in VESTAS about ten or fifteen years ago when I read an article stating that the potential growth/demand in the US. The other major manufacturers are GE and a couple Chinese companies. I sold the stock after a couple years. So, I have absolutely no interest whether these companies are successful.
However, nobody wants a nuclear plant in their backyard. We can not dam any more rivers. The idiots here in New England do not want a natural gas line or a transmission line from Quebec in the back yard. Coal is out. So, what is left to generate electricity?
Or in asphalt for roadways?
I seriously doubt the author was required to complete inorganic chemistry to graduate from FU with his journalism degree.
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