The European Commission also plans to review its landfill policies in 2024. Overcoming the logistical challenges of transportation with new shredding techniques and other innovations are just as critical to the solving the industry’s lifecycle and environmental problems as they are to avoiding a public relations meltdown.Īs Europe continues to push the wind industry to meet more aggressive carbon- and emissions targets, Siemens announced it intends to make all of its blades fully recyclable by 2030 and its turbines fully recyclable by 2040. Recycling Composite Wind Turbine Blades is a Tricky Business In the GE/Veolia partnership, one key area of focus is reviewing the whole CO2 chain involved in recycling, to make sure that all of the CO2 used throughout the recycling chain is accounted for, and that its approach is as efficient as possible. By breaking it into raw materials, it can be moved in a semi-truck instead of on an oversized flatbed.
#Windmill graveyard how to#
The company uses a multi-step shredding process, for example, to address the very practical roadblock of how to transport the decommissioned blade. Working with GE and other partner companies, Veolia is addressing the very complex problem from multiple angles. Veolia and GE: Better Logistics, Smaller Carbon Footprint Of course, the process itself uses a lot of CO2. According to Veolia, more than 90% of the blades are reused: 65% as raw material in the cement plants, and 28% transformed into energy required for the chemical reaction in the kiln. That REM can go into kilns to replace the coal, sand and clay used to make cement. Once the blade material has been shredded ( typically at a Veolia plant in Missouri) the REM is ready to use. Veolia uses a co-processing solution that has proven effective in Europe to turn the blades into raw material. In fact, separating and processing the material to use as fuel and cement mix – as complicated as it is – may be easier than the logistics required to disassemble, transport, and shred the turbine blade material. Howell describes how Veolia and GE Renewables are transforming wind turbine blade recycling.
“Every blade is uniquely different, depending upon who manufactures it,” - Chris Howell, Sr. “Utilizing this material as an engineered fuel or what we call repurposed engineered materials (REM) for cement processing worked very, very well,” said Chris Howell, Sr. However, because the materials have a BTU value, and most of the materials are non-hazardous, they can be used in cement kilns. Composite materials are notoriously difficult to break down – hence the importance of the new epoxy resin that Siemens has highlighted in its press releases.Įxtending the life of wind turbine blades also improves sustainability.īut the good news is, although it’s not easy, old wind turbine blades are recyclable.īecause composite blades are combination of different materials, there are inherent chemical and physical challenges in separating those materials.
#Windmill graveyard install#
The company has said that it plans to install the blades early in 2022.Īnd while that’s a positive step, countless blades now in use (or in storage, or in landfills) aren’t necessarily being recycled. This summer, Siemens Gamesa announced that it had produced six 81-meter (265 feet) blades that are “fully recyclable,” primarily thanks to a change in the type of epoxy used. Listen to our interview with Chris Howell of Veolia, and find out how that company is keeping turbine materials in the energy cycle, and out of wind turbine blade cemeteries. Here’s a look at some of the wind turbine blade recycling and environmental sustainability work going on now. The wind energy industry must promote and improve wind turbine blade recycling – and, it’s happening. The very real environmental repercussions threaten the industry and the planet. Massive stacks of wind turbine blades in landfills are a public relations nightmare – just search “Turbine Blade Graveyard ” we guarantee a headache.
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