So Much For Green Energy

[webbo3]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8294057/Hundreds-non-recyclable-fiberglass-wind-turbine-blades-pictured-piling-landfills.html

[ToraToraTora]

why are they being decommed at this rate?

[Fatalbertfixer]

Avatar Image ToraToraTora
why are they being decommed at this rate?
Probaly because the materials they are made of have a safe life,after a certain amount of time stresses build up in the structure and the blade will be liable to fail.They will have been tested to destruction or,the calculations on a computer will give an estamate on how many hours until failure.

[ToraToraTora]

OK so if we are going to avoid this they are going to have to make them last a lot longer.

[Mozz71]

Wow. I'm in complete agreement with Tora on an eco story. That seems the obvious answer, to find a new, longer lasting, or recyclable material

[Kardashev]

Yes, this does illustrate that systems that are extolled as being "green" often have a non green hidden dimension to them. Electric cars is the big one at the moment.

[Gromit]

Good to read they already have a solution

// Global Fiberglass Solutions, developed a method to break down blades and press them into pellets and fiber boards to be used for flooring and walls. The company started producing samples at a plant in Sweetwater, Texas, near the continent’s largest concentration of wind farms. It plans another operation in Iowa.

“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. The company has accumulated an inventory of about one year’s worth of blades ready to be chopped up and recycled as demand increases, he said. “When we start to sell to more builders, we can take in a lot more of them. We’re just gearing up.” //

[Kardashev]

That looks like good news gromit.

[Gromit]

The same material is in car bodies, boats and bathtubs.

[Kardashev]

so are we saying that up to now fibre glass has not been recyclable? It seems then that necessity has indeed been the mother of invention.

[New Judge]

//That looks like good news gromit.//

Does it? I wonder how much energy it takes to process the knackered blades.

[Kardashev]

New Judge: I was just thinking it was better to recycle them than bury them, I have not done a full analysis.

[Gromit]

Fibre glass recycling has long been a problem in the boat building industry.
The material has a very high glass content. A company in Germany currently grinds them down to sand and sells it to concrete making companies.

[Gromit]

Very good article here.

In Europe fibre glass is banned in landfill in some countries. Other charge a high price, making recycling the lesser of two evils.

https://www.wastexchange.org/upload_publications/recyclingdeadboats.pdf

[ABerrant]

Just wait until the vast swathes of ageing solar panels need to be replaced within the next few years.

[Atheist]

At least these things aren't radioactive.