6 ms·

Interestingly, blade waste, when put in comparison to the size of the population, is pretty negligible. As per the article, the EU will discard about 650k tons

Interestingly, blade waste, when put in comparison to the size of the population, is pretty negligible. As per the article, the EU will discard about 650k tons of blades between 2044 and 2049, or 130k tons per year. That's less than 300 grams (or 0.7 lb) per EU citizen. I'm wondering if these waste could not better be reused as construction material (e.g. grinded to pieces and then used as concrete aggregate).

c-linkage 3y ago
The problem isn't necessarily the mass of the waste but the volume. https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/pieces-of-wind-turbine-blades-are-buried-in-the-casper-regional-in-picture-id1222855083?s=612x612 https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/pieces-of-wind-turbine-... Wind turbine blades are not crushed or pulverized but buried whole.
- raphaelj 3y ago
  Why couldn't these be cut in transportable pieces and then industrially grinded?
- alfor 3y ago
  So, they need a grinder? Does not seem like a hard technical problem.
  - c-linkage 3y ago
    https://blog.ucsusa.org/james-gignac/wind-turbine-blades-recycling/ https://blog.ucsusa.org/james-gignac/wind-turbine-blades-rec... "But the blades are different as they are made up of fiberglass (a composite material) to be lightweight for efficiency yet still durable enough to withstand storms. The mixed nature of the blade material makes separating the plastics from the glass fibers to recycle into a workable fiberglass material difficult—and the strength needed for the blades means they are also physically challenging to break apart."
    - stametseater 3y ago
      > "the strength needed for the blades means they are also physically challenging to break apart." Obvious BS, just try harder. Crush them with a big steam roller or with a crane that drops a heavy thing on them. There are a thousand ways to break strong things. Then bulldoze the fragments into an industrial shredder, and bury the result. No need to separate the "fiberglass material" for recycling, thermoset resins don't recycle for shit anyway. Crush it and bury it, this whole thing is an imaginary problem.
      - Arrath 3y ago
        They're hollow, right? Fill them with water and a moderate explosive charge, crack!
    - christkv 3y ago
      Why can’t you just incinerate them?
      - MrOwnPut 3y ago
        The same reason we bury other trash instead of incinerating it. It's better to be in the Earth than in the atmosphere.
  - steve_adams_86 3y ago
    It would require a massive grinder with very hard steel discs. It would be hard to avoid congestion issues with such hard materials going through it. Maybe this is solved problem territory, but grinders seem tricky to make right at all scales. Plenty can go wrong because such massive forces can be involved.
    - orangepurple 3y ago
      Nothing that TNT or RDX can't fix in a hurry
  - adrianmonk 3y ago
    SSI Shredders seems to agree it's not hard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuBeq3M2hvA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuBeq3M2hvA
    - adhesive_wombat 3y ago
      Might not be hard as in difficult but those teeth look pretty hard as in Rockwell scale.
megaman821 3y ago
I think I have read 5 of these turbine recycling articles and I really don't get the problem. My best guess is that countries that export or incinerate the majority of their trash have no place to bury the blades, so recycling is the best option to get rid of them.
- konschubert 3y ago
  Wind energy opponents have successfully played this up as an issue to divide environmentalists. The correct response to this is of course that wind turbine landfill isn’t a problem at all.
  - jeffbee 3y ago
    Windmill recycling, battery recycling, and land impacts of lithium mining are the three legs of the fossil fuel propaganda war. Other skirmishes include base load, range anxiety, and PV panel disposal.
    - MrOwnPut 3y ago
      So when are those issues acceptable to talk about without assuming they are propaganda? I do support alternative sources of energy, but what you've listed are serious sticking points that should be discussed and addressed, not just handwaving it away as propaganda. It's similar to ignoring nuclear as a base load, ignoring that we decreased emissions by replacing coal with nat. gas, ignoring that train derailments are worse than pipelines, etc. It would be better to openly talk about these things instead of just saying things like "oh well it's only so many tons of waste, or that much child labor, it must be some oil shill trying to trick us".
      - jeffbee 3y ago
        Talk about it all you want, but know that the fact that the press has run 1000s of stories about the land impact of lithium mining and has never run even one single article about the much, much, much larger land impacts of fossil fuel production is indicative of an organized backroom propaganda effort. Same thing for these other non-issues of renewable energy waste.

c-linkage 3y ago

The problem isn't necessarily the mass of the waste but the volume. https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/pieces-of-wind-turbine-blades-are-buried-in-the-casper-regional-in-picture-id1222855083?s=612x612 https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/pieces-of-wind-turbine-... Wind turbine blades are not crushed or pulverized but buried whole.

raphaelj 3y ago
Why couldn't these be cut in transportable pieces and then industrially grinded?
alfor 3y ago
So, they need a grinder? Does not seem like a hard technical problem.
- c-linkage 3y ago
  https://blog.ucsusa.org/james-gignac/wind-turbine-blades-recycling/ https://blog.ucsusa.org/james-gignac/wind-turbine-blades-rec... "But the blades are different as they are made up of fiberglass (a composite material) to be lightweight for efficiency yet still durable enough to withstand storms. The mixed nature of the blade material makes separating the plastics from the glass fibers to recycle into a workable fiberglass material difficult—and the strength needed for the blades means they are also physically challenging to break apart."
  - stametseater 3y ago
    > "the strength needed for the blades means they are also physically challenging to break apart." Obvious BS, just try harder. Crush them with a big steam roller or with a crane that drops a heavy thing on them. There are a thousand ways to break strong things. Then bulldoze the fragments into an industrial shredder, and bury the result. No need to separate the "fiberglass material" for recycling, thermoset resins don't recycle for shit anyway. Crush it and bury it, this whole thing is an imaginary problem.
    - Arrath 3y ago
      They're hollow, right? Fill them with water and a moderate explosive charge, crack!
  - christkv 3y ago
    Why can’t you just incinerate them?
    - MrOwnPut 3y ago
      The same reason we bury other trash instead of incinerating it. It's better to be in the Earth than in the atmosphere.
- steve_adams_86 3y ago
  It would require a massive grinder with very hard steel discs. It would be hard to avoid congestion issues with such hard materials going through it. Maybe this is solved problem territory, but grinders seem tricky to make right at all scales. Plenty can go wrong because such massive forces can be involved.
  - orangepurple 3y ago
    Nothing that TNT or RDX can't fix in a hurry
- adrianmonk 3y ago
  SSI Shredders seems to agree it's not hard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuBeq3M2hvA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuBeq3M2hvA
  - adhesive_wombat 3y ago
    Might not be hard as in difficult but those teeth look pretty hard as in Rockwell scale.

megaman821 3y ago

I think I have read 5 of these turbine recycling articles and I really don't get the problem. My best guess is that countries that export or incinerate the majority of their trash have no place to bury the blades, so recycling is the best option to get rid of them.

konschubert 3y ago
Wind energy opponents have successfully played this up as an issue to divide environmentalists. The correct response to this is of course that wind turbine landfill isn’t a problem at all.
- jeffbee 3y ago
  Windmill recycling, battery recycling, and land impacts of lithium mining are the three legs of the fossil fuel propaganda war. Other skirmishes include base load, range anxiety, and PV panel disposal.
  - MrOwnPut 3y ago
    So when are those issues acceptable to talk about without assuming they are propaganda? I do support alternative sources of energy, but what you've listed are serious sticking points that should be discussed and addressed, not just handwaving it away as propaganda. It's similar to ignoring nuclear as a base load, ignoring that we decreased emissions by replacing coal with nat. gas, ignoring that train derailments are worse than pipelines, etc. It would be better to openly talk about these things instead of just saying things like "oh well it's only so many tons of waste, or that much child labor, it must be some oil shill trying to trick us".
    - jeffbee 3y ago
      Talk about it all you want, but know that the fact that the press has run 1000s of stories about the land impact of lithium mining and has never run even one single article about the much, much, much larger land impacts of fossil fuel production is indicative of an organized backroom propaganda effort. Same thing for these other non-issues of renewable energy waste.