Megan Hall: We had Max Kozlov and Fatima Husain from our Possibly Team look into this. What do you do with the material when they’re no good anymore? Its productivity starts going down after a while. Kevin Curran: Everyone sings the songs of wind and solar, but I wonder if anyone considers what happens to it when it’s done. Megan Hall: For the past ten years, Kevin has helped transition the state towards using renewable energy, but that’s made him wonder about what happens to wind turbines when they age. Kevin Curran: I’m Kevin Curran, I’m from Providence, Rhode Island, and I’m an electrician. Today, we have a question from a listener: Despite the waste issue, wind power is still one of the most sustainable sources of energy.Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. Hopefully, recent advances will help make wind power even greener. The decommissioning of wind farms and the associated environmental impact has largely been a blind spot for the industry. The benefits of recyclable blades are still decades away at best. Most wind farms being constructed today will be decommissioned in a few decades. “The thermoplastic material absorbs more energy from loads on the blades due to the wind, which can reduce the wear and tear from these loads to the rest of the turbine system, which is a good thing,” said NREL researcher Robynne Murray.Īlthough the research looks promising, progress will be slow. So far, the thermoplastic resin blade durability looks promising. You can get the liquid resin back and reuse that.” This means that the blades could be recycled instead of downcycled into lower-value goods. You heat it to a certain temperature, and it melts back down. “But with a thermoplastic resin system, you can make a blade out of it. You can’t reverse that,” said Derek Berry, a senior engineer at NREL in a press release. “With thermoset resin systems, it’s almost like when you fry an egg. These are all wins for the environment and the wind energy industry. It also seems easier to recycle and uses less energy in the manufacturing process. A lightweight blade is easier to transport and uses less fuel. Lower costs also could help boost wind energy deployment, reducing the use of fossil fuels. If the new blade also proves to be durable, this could be a gamechanger for the offshore and onshore wind industry. The good news is that researchers have developed a blade out of thermoplastic resin (instead of thermoset resin) that is low-cost, lightweight, and seems to be recyclable. Therefore, many spent turbine blades are piling up in landfills, although some reinforced plastic blades are downcycled into cement products. Unfortunately, thermoset plastics are almost impossible to recycle, so the blades do not have much scrap value and are not very appealing to recyclers. Most wind turbine blades are currently constructed with composite material infused with a thermoset resin, which makes them highly durable to withstand storms and the elements. In particular, wind turbine blades present the biggest waste management challenge, but researchers from the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in partnership with Arkema Inc. Although certain parts of wind turbines can be relatively easily recycled, others are not designed for recyclability. The longest wind turbine blade to date is 350 feet, almost the length of a football field. The design life of wind turbines is about 20 to 25 years. Wind energy is an excellent way to reduce carbon emissions, but what happens when the wind turbine blades wear out? Is there a looming waste disposal issue? Looming Waste Management Issues Since 2008, the use of coal-fired power plants has declined, as the use of renewable energy and natural gas has increased. Wind energy generated 7% of the total electricity in the United States in 2019. Wind and solar energy capacity has skyrocketed and continues on an upward trend. The energy mix in the United States has shifted significantly in recent years.
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