Thousands Of Wind Turbine Blades Wind Up in Landfills

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slave
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19 Apr 2020, 3:49 am

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills?fbclid=IwAR10ThhzKLM13oaOwafjZvFQf7NtEq9Kjzf2B6RtSrYcLWwZBHYBineBGhc

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"Tens of thousands of aging blades are coming down from steel towers around the world and most have nowhere to go but landfills. In the U.S. alone, about 8,000 will be removed in each of the next four years. Europe, which has been dealing with the problem longer, has about 3,800 coming down annually through at least 2022, according to BloombergNEF."



Wolfram87
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19 Apr 2020, 3:56 am

What are those made of, and is this really the best use of that scrap material?


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cyberdad
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19 Apr 2020, 3:56 am

Surely they can these blades out of recyclable material?



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19 Apr 2020, 4:53 am

Quote:
Wind Turbine Blades Can’t Be Recycled, So They’re Piling Up in Landfills



Wolfram87
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19 Apr 2020, 7:22 am

Reading up a bit, it seems they're made of either fiberglass or carbon fiber, both of which are difficult to recycle with current tech, and the blades are frigging huge and thus difficult and expensive to transport. Though this particular solution seems like the sort of thing that's going to bite us in the arse at a not too distant later date.


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Misslizard
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19 Apr 2020, 9:31 am

Even when we try to do good we f**k up, what a depressing species we are.
Maybe these?With improvements.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.techno ... ction/amp/


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beady
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19 Apr 2020, 10:10 am

So, the blades sound strong, and light. I wonder if someone can design an architectural use for them:like housing?



Wolfram87
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19 Apr 2020, 10:25 am

Possibly, but it would have to be something that doesn't rely on them being as strong as they used to; the reason they're replaced is material fatigue over time.


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Karamazov
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19 Apr 2020, 10:33 am

What’s the replacement timescale on them?
Just thinking I can remember them being there on the welsh hills when I was a boy (so late 80s-early 90s), my Nan called them “cartwheeling grandmothers” at the time.
Have those been replaced multiple times, or would the blades still be the original ones 25~ years later?



Wolfram87
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19 Apr 2020, 10:37 am

A quick googling suggests 20-25 years, give or take.


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Karamazov
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19 Apr 2020, 10:50 am

That’s not too bad for a component lifespan: about the same as contemporary buildings are *intended* to be in use for in the UK...

although I’ll agree with anyone who thinks that’s wasteful, shocked me when I was informed by one of my uni tutors.
(“That building you’ve designed would last a century if not two or three: that’s not how the modern industry works”)

How the full lifespan emission, industrial byproducts and landfill usage compares to coal or gas power plants is probably the fundamental question.



Wolfram87
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19 Apr 2020, 11:26 am

That...doesn't speak well about modern construction practices. The building I'm in right now was built in 1954, and perfectly up to a modern standard of living.

And sure, it's an extremely long lifespan for a replaceable component, but measured against the amount of material involved it's still a huge waste. I'm not very familiar with carbon fiber/fiberglass manufacture and the effects of material fatigue on those materials, but it seems reasonable that the standard for what a wind turbine blade must be able to endure is very high, and therefore that even when the material is no longer up to that task that it be plenty strong for other applications.


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Karamazov
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19 Apr 2020, 11:31 am

One would expect so, although the forces they’re under may have junked them for direct re-use.
I imagine that fully reprocessing the materials isn’t a profitable investment as of yet.
I do remember one of my tutors at uni having reservations about fibreglass insulation due to its lack of options for re-use/recycling: that was a decade ago and a few years on top of that though, one would hope that someone somewhere is tinkering on it.



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19 Apr 2020, 11:50 am

Quick google: this German company recycles carbon-fibre, and is specifically touting for business recycling wind-turbines.

ROTH - Wind Turbine page



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19 Apr 2020, 1:30 pm

From the site:

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Upon customer request, we will also be happy to pick up rotor blades from anywhere in the world.


Which is nice, but leaves me to suspect that, as with so many things, the fundamental problem here is cost.


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19 Apr 2020, 6:43 pm

Misslizard wrote:
Even when we try to do good we f**k up, what a depressing species we are.
Maybe these?With improvements.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.techno ... ction/amp/

"Depressing"?
Humanity is a blight in the universe,
And are erky perky, to boot. :eew:

I find it "amusing" how those who favour wind turbines turn a blind eye when it comes to the 10's of thousands of birds that are killed because of them, every year.

Go nuclear!
Hoowa! :twisted: