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The
Equation


WIND TURBINE BLADES DON’T HAVE TO END UP IN LANDFILLS

October 30, 2020
US Department of Energy
James Gignac
Lead Midwest Energy Analyst

This is one of four blogs in a series examining current challenges and
opportunities for recycling of clean energy technologies. Please see the
introductory post, as well as other entries on solar panels and energy storage
batteries. Special thanks to Jessica Garcia, UCS’s Summer 2020 Midwest Clean
Energy Policy Fellow, for research support and co-authoring these posts.


WIND TURBINES HAVE INCREASED IN SIZE AND QUANTITY TO MEET CLEAN ENERGY CAPACITY
DEMANDS

Modern wind power converts the kinetic (movement) energy from wind into
mechanical energy. This happens through the turning of large fiberglass blades,
which then spin a generator to produce electricity. Wind turbines, as they are
known, can be located onshore or offshore.

Wind power is projected to continue growing across the US by 2050. The latest
Wind Technologies Market Report prepared by Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory found that wind energy prices are at all-time lows, and for 2019, 7.3
percent of utility-scale electricity generation in the US came from wind. In
this blog post, we will examine land-based wind turbines and the recycling
opportunities that exist but are not yet widely implemented for the turbine
blades.

Source: Berkeley Lab Electric Markets & Policy
(https://emp.lbl.gov/wind-energy-growth)

Wind turbine designs have evolved over time to increase in size and efficiency,
ultimately leading to greater generating capacity. The principle design of
commercial turbines today are horizontal axis wind turbines consisting of a
rotor with three fiberglass blades attached to a hub, which is itself attached
to a central piece (the nacelle) that is mounted on a steel tower. Various other
machinery and concrete foundations are also included in modern wind turbine
design, which include over 8,000 parts per turbine.

Wind turbine blades in the existing US fleet average around 50 meters in length,
or about 164 feet (approximately the width of a U.S. football field). And with
recent trends to use longer blades on bigger turbines and taller towers to
increase electricity production, a few of the largest blades produced today
reach 60-80 meters in length.

Source: Berkeley Lab, Wind Energy Technology Data Update: 2020 Edition, Page 37.
Note that rotor diameter (shown here in meters) is slightly more than twice the
length of the blades

Photo: James Gignac

In terms of durability, wind turbines last an average of about 25 years. About
85 percent of turbine component materials—such as steel, copper wire,
electronics, and gearing—can be recycled or reused. 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.


WHERE DO USED WIND TURBINE BLADES END UP NOW?

Wind turbine blades require disposal or recycling when the turbines are
decommissioned at the end-of-use stage, or when wind farms are being upgraded in
a process known as repowering. Repowering involves keeping the same site and
often maintaining or reusing the primary infrastructure for wind turbines but
upgrading with larger capacity turbines. The blades might be replaced with more
modern and typically larger blades. Either way, the fiberglass blades, once
they’re no longer needed, pose the greatest challenge to end-of-use
considerations for wind energy.

While it’s possible to cut the blades into a few pieces onsite during a
decommissioning or repowering process, the pieces are still difficult and costly
to transport for recycling or disposal. And the process of cutting the extremely
strong blades requires enormous equipment such as vehicle mounted wire saws or
diamond-wire saws similar to what is used in quarries. Because there are so few
options for recycling the blades currently, the vast majority of those that
reach end-of-use are either being stored in various places or taken to
landfills.

Indeed, Bloomberg Green reported earlier this year on wind turbine blades being
disposed of in landfills. Even though the waste stream represents only a tiny
fraction of US municipal solid waste, it’s clearly not an ideal situation. As
wind turbines are being decommissioned or replaced, the necessity arises for
more creative recycling solutions for used blades.

The good news is that some efforts at developing alternatives are underway. Two
large utilities in the US, PacificCorp and MidAmerican Energy, for example, have
recently announced plans to partner with the Tennessee company Carbon Rivers to
recycle some of the utilities spent turbine blades instead of landfilling them.
The technology used by Carbon Rivers is being supported through grant funding by
the US Department of Energy and will be used to break down and reuse fiberglass
from used turbine blades.

Photo: Flickr/Chuck Coker


EMERGING INNOVATIONS IN FIBERGLASS RECYCLING

While the composite nature of fiberglass turbine blades makes them notoriously
difficult to deal with at the end-of-use stage, interest in finding alternatives
can also spark creativity and innovation. For example, a partnership involving
US, Ireland, and Northern Ireland Universities called Re-wind developed some
interesting civil engineering project ideas for reusing and repurposing
fiberglass blades. These include using decommissioned blades in civil
engineering projects as part of powerline structures or towers, or roofs for
emergency or affordable housing. In Northern Ireland, Re-wind is also
considering piloting them for use in pedestrian bridges along greenways.

Further down the waste hierarchy, additional recycling options are beginning to
emerge. WindEurope, representing the European Union’s wind industry, is
partnering with the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) and the European
Composites Industry Association (EuCIA) to develop new methods to reuse blade
materials. The organizations estimate that 14,000 wind turbine blades will be
decommissioned over the next few years in Europe alone. In May 2020, the
consortium produced Accelerating Wind Turbine Blade Circularity, a comprehensive
report which details design, research, and technical solutions focused on the
wind turbine life cycle.

A key consideration for recycling of composite materials is to ensure that the
recycling process has a net positive result compared to the alternative of
disposing in landfills. One example comes from Germany, where the concept of
recycling turbine blades into cement was first developed about a decade ago
through a plant built under a partnership between Geocycle, a business unit of
the building materials corporation HolcimAG, and the company Zajons.

This form of recycling involves control of the disposal supply chain—including
sawing the turbine blades into smaller pieces at the decommissioning site to
decrease transportation logistics and costs. The process promises 100 percent
recycling and reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from cement co-processing
through replacing production of cement raw materials with the recycled blades,
plus the use of biogas from organic remnants in place of coal as a fuel.

Other technologies such as mechanical recycling, solvolysis, and pyrolysis are
also being developed, which will ideally provide the industry with additional
options for handling fiberglass blades when they reach end-of-use.



Another creative recycling option produces pellets or boards that can be used in
carpentry applications. In 2019, Global Fiberglass Solutions began producing a
product called EcoPoly Pellets in the U.S. and will soon additionally produce a
panel version. These products are certified as being recycled from
decommissioned wind turbine blades through radio-frequency identification (RFID)
tracking from the blade to the end-product. EcoPoly Pellets can be transformed
into a variety of products such as warehouse pallets, flooring material, or
parking bollards. Based on its demand forecasts, Global Fiberglass Solutions
anticipates being able to process 6,000 to 7,000 blades per year at each of its
two plants in Texas and Iowa.

An added approach to the blade recycling issue is to focus on the upfront
piece—what the blades are made of. Additional research and development is
looking into using thermoplastic resin instead of fiberglass or carbon fiber for
wind turbine blades. The material may be easier and cheaper to recycle.

In the end, the goal of increasing innovation towards additional use
applications for retired turbine blades requires having enough market demand to
incentivize the creation of facilities that can recycle the blades. Alongside
that challenge is a lack of policy in the U.S. regarding end-of-use
considerations for turbine blades, further contributing to the status quo of
storage or disposal as solid waste in landfills.


ACHIEVING 100 PERCENT RECYCLABILITY OF WIND TURBINE SYSTEMS

As discussed above, it is currently less expensive to dispose of wind turbine
blades in the closest landfill rather than the oftentimes long-distance
transport required for recycling in the limited number of facilities that can
process them efficiently. The industry, in addition, currently suffers from a
lack of regulatory pressure or market incentives to fully develop other
end-of-use options.

Two approaches to a more circular economy are greater communication along the
wind turbine supply chain, and ambitious goals. For example, Vestas Wind Systems
A/S, a wind turbine design, manufacturing, and global installation company,
announced a bold commitment to produce zero waste wind turbines by 2040. The
company plans to achieve this by increasing recyclability over the next 20 years
through working closely with its partners along the supply chain to ultimately
avoid any incineration or landfilling of its products. More partnerships like
these between wind industry companies are needed to help fill the gap and make
wind energy systems 100 percent recyclable.

Also, US states should consider policy mechanisms to drive market development of
alternative solutions, such as increased producer responsibilities, beyond the
disposal of wind turbine blades in landfills. States could additionally
contemplate ways to support construction of regional recycling
infrastructure—particularly in states with larger portions of wind power such as
Texas or Iowa—to address the end-of-use stage for wind turbine blades.

Please see the other blogs in this series for an introduction to recycling clean
energy technologies, as well as additional information on recycling solar panels
and energy storage batteries.

Part of a series on Recycling Clean Energy Technologies
Read the series

Posted in: Energy

Tags: clean energy, recycling, Recycling Clean Energy Technologies, wind power


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About the author

More from James

James Gignac is Senior Midwest energy analyst for the Climate & Energy program
at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Prior to joining UCS, Mr. Gignac served as environmental and energy counsel and
as assistant attorney general to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, where
he worked on a variety of regulatory, legislative, and litigation matters
involving clean energy, climate change, and environmental protection.


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