A wind turbine’s blades can be longer than a Boeing 747 wing, so at the end of their lifespan they can’t just be hauled away. First, you need to saw through the lissome fiberglass using a diamond-encrusted industrial saw to create three pieces small enough to be strapped to a tractor-trailer.
The municipal landfill in Casper, Wyoming, is the final resting place of 870 blades whose days making renewable energy have come to end. The severed fragments look like bleached whale bones nestled against one another.
“That’s the end of it for this winter,” said waste technician Michael Bratvold, watching a bulldozer bury them forever in sand. “We’ll get the rest when the weather breaks this spring.”
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. It’s going to get worse: Most were built more than a decade ago, when installations were less than a fifth of what they are now.
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21 comments:
So now you're in a war against wind energy? sigh. Guess we should just burn more coal and gas right?
The guy who has discovered how to harness the tide and ocean waves claims to be able to utilize discarded blades.Some of you may recall his appearance on Shark Tank several years ago.The sharks felt that he had a good idea but it hadn't been proven effective because no working prototype had been built at that time.Tides are an endless source of energy that require an enormous investment to tap into.One mile of ocean front one mile deep would generate enough electricity to power Md,Del,and the Eastern Shore of Va.
Yes, yes we should.
The same material is used in car and boat manufacturing. Funny we make plenty of both and they’re not filling landfills. More coal industry crap!
The wind turbines include composites that cannot be recycled. It is not the same material used in car and boat manufacturing. Wind and solar produce a speck of energy in relation to their land use and are significantly more expensive than coal, natural gas, or nuclear.
Wind farms are inefficient
Couldn't this be re-purposed for building material?
I would bet it would make great material for building a home or
business.
Seems rather ironic, huh? Save the planet. Build wind farms. Bury the waste.
You must work for one of those industries.
Just another stupid waste of taxpayer money and they will probably poison the environment the soil and any run off, our oceans and any contamination. Must have been a Bernie Sanders dream.
Not even an infinitesimal fraction of the toxic waste produced by the coal industry. Nice try.
There's something about coal, uranium, and natural gas that just send to work. Go figure.
They cost more than you save in energy costs. How is that even smart? Now you have these giant blades, after they kill uncountable birds, they take up space in landfills. Thank the libtards
11:16
You can turn you power off if you want to, but yes we should just burn more coal and gas.
Coal and gas has made our standard of living the best in the world.
You would think so, first thought that went through my head.
Dump them in the ocean like they've done with old boats to make an artificial reef to attract fish.
Why can't anyone accept the idea that wind turbines are inefficient? Waste of taxpayer dollars. The coal and natural gas options are by far more efficient. But if a lie is pushed along it becomes the truth so those unable to reason for themselves accept the lies as truth and that is why we are at this point in the energy discussion.
There is no way to break them down and grind them up to be recycled. They already cost hundreds just to be cut into 3 pieces! How much would it cost to be able to grind them up into any type of usable product would cost 100's of millions to just build much less maintenance on replacement of the diamond cutters and grinders. Regular steal won't chew them up!!
Wind energy is not considered to be reliable. It is a fluctuating source of energy.
Electricity from wind energy must be stored (i.e. batteries).
Wind turbines are a potential threat to wildlife such as birds and bats.
Deforestation to set up a wind farm creates an environmental impact.
Noise is a complaint with many wind farms that are close to communities.
Some people find wind farms to be unsightly.
Why aren't they built out of aluminium?
Saying that they can't be recycled or repurposed points to a serious conceptual design flaw.
Why not aluminum? My guesses would be weight, electrical conductivity and oxidation.
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