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Narrator: Cement factories burn turbine blades as fuel. Veolia says their product burns cleaner than coal. Even so, it is unlikely to have a major impact on the carbon footprint of the cement industry. This is because most of the emissions do not come from burning coal but from the heating of limestone in giant furnaces.
Currently, the cement industry produces about 8% of all greenhouse gases, which is three times more than the aviation industry. So is the production of new cement the best we can do with turbine blades?
This may not reduce emissions from cement production, but it will prevent shovels from ending up in landfills. However, not everyone agrees that shredding and burning the blades is the best solution.
Larry Bank, Scientist, The Re-Wind Network: In my opinion, this is a huge waste of energy and resources that were used in the production of the blades.
Narrator: Scientists like Larry Bank say reusing shovels is a better option.
Larry: Instead of disposing of them as waste, we are looking for ways to give them a second life or use them in another industry.
Narrator: Larry and other researchers at Re-Wind are building a pedestrian bridge in Ireland. They also propose to turn wind turbines into cell phone towers and fences.
Larry: Hopefully these demonstration projects will convince people that reusing shovels is a viable alternative.
Narrator: They are not the only ones taking care of it. Architects in the Netherlands used old shovels to build a playground and a monument. Another company in Denmark built a shelter for bicycles. So why are turbine blades not used in more such projects?
Larry: Mainly because dumping them in a landfill is cheap. Unlikely to introduce legislation in the United States , landfill will be the preferred option.
See also: The windmills break another record of electricity production. Never before had it been blown so hard and for so long
Narrator: After the first publication of this video , Veolia replied that reusing shovels was an interesting idea, but that these designs were not enough to deal with the growing waste problem.
Chris: These applications are not enough for the sustainable management of used wind turbine blades.
Narrator: As more and more turbines are installed in America, the problem of waste will increase. There are already over 70,000 in the USA . turbines.
And thanks to the plans to expand offshore wind energy, there may be 2,000 more in the next decade. The infrastructure act of 2021 assumes the allocation of at least $ 100 million. for the development of wind energy.
One study predicts that by 2050 the global amount of waste from turbine blades will exceed 47 million tonnes. Even if it does, it will still be about one-eighth of the plastic that’s thrown away each year.
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It’s a holdover from what was once a wind turbine.
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Larry: This does not matter much compared to most other industrial processes.
Narrator: For both Veolia and Re-Wind, finding an answer to what to do with shovels is a challenge.
Chris: It’s a cliché, but what is rubbish for one person may be a treasure for another. We have a finite number of resources. We have to find innovative ways to discover new resources, and they may come from materials that we have already used.
Larry: If we can find reuses for these materials, it will be a win-win.
Author: Amelia Kosciulek i Katie Nixdorf
crowd. Piotr Nalazek
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