Wind turbine graveyard3/2/2023 The blades are made of a tough but pliable mix of resin and fiberglass - similar to what spaceship parts are made from. They are anywhere from 100 to 300 feet long and must be cut into thirds, transported on specialized equipment and then buried. will have to dispose of more than 720,000 tons of blade material over the next 20 years. In a September 13 Science Friday story (“Wind Turbines Leave Behind Hard-to-Manage Waste”), researchers estimated that the U.S. Nationwide, there are nearly 50,000 wind turbines, with 2,700 being decommissioned since the energy boom of the 1970s.” “The only materials not recycled are the fiberglass blades and motor housings. “The average lifespan of a wind turbine is 20 to 25 years, and wind farms repurpose and recycle 90 percent of the materials in a wind turbine unit,” according to the Cowboy State Daily. Langston noted that the crushing equipment is not big enough for the blades, so workers cut them into three pieces and stuff two smaller sections in the third, which is cheaper than renting stronger crushing machines. that currently accept turbine blades, which are not recycled.Īccording to a Wyoming Cowboy State Daily article last August (“Wind Turbine Blades Being Disposed of in Casper Landfill”): “Each turbine blade will need between 30 and 44.8 cubic yards of landfill space, using a total of 448,000 cubic yards of the 2.6 million yards set aside for construction and demolition of material.”Ĭindie Langston, solid waste manager for Casper Regional Landfill said “The components are made of a fiberglass material that is one of the most inert, non-toxic materials accepted at Casper Regional Landfill.” Those locations are the only three places in the U.S. Lake Mills, Iowa and Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Casper, Wyoming have “green” burial grounds: the landfill sites for wind turbine blades. The question would be: 'At what cost?'" McCoy said, adding that he would like to bring utility executives, landfill operators, researchers and other leaders together to discuss ways to recycle the blades.Windmill blades are being buried in three locations because there is no way to effectively recycle them. "I'd be interested in finding out if they can be grinded. But you've got to have an end market for that, and I'm not sure" there is one, said McCoy, whose operation is beginning to discuss if it would take blades. "Whether it's blades or tires, we'd rather see materials recycled. Michael McCoy, executive director of the Metro Waste Authority in Des Moines, said Iowa needs to figure out how best to recycle the blades, given wind energy's growing presence in Iowa. Iowa gets 34% of its electricity from wind, the second-largest proportion in the nation after Kansas at 36%. So far, it's reached about 50%.ĭespite the big investment, coal is still Iowa's largest source of energy to produce electricity, followed by wind and other renewable energy and natural gas. MidAmerican Energy has set a goal to create as much energy from wind as its 770,000 Iowa electric customers use over a year. 6 common complaints against Iowa wind turbines.Why these Iowans really, really hate wind power.Is wind power saving rural Iowa or wrecking it?.Wind blown: MidAmerican zeroes in on 100% renewable energy.And the spinning blades can kill migrating birds and bats.īlade disposal is "just one of many factors we're concerned about," said Kuntz, the Worth County wind farm opponent. Some who live near the turbines complain that low-frequency noise and light flickering from the blades make them ill. The difficulty in reusing blades adds to the complaints opponents make against wind energy. They’ve been built," he said. "In our opinion, there needs to be a way to handle the waste that’s derived from them." "One way or another, we have to deal with it as a state. "There wasn’t a plan in place to say, 'How are we going to recycle these?' 'How are we going to reduce the impact on landfills?'" said Rowland, director of the Landfill of North Iowa near Clear Lake.
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