Narrator: Until recently, recycling of wind turbine blades was virtually impossible. They need to be replaced approximately every 20 years.
Now one of the companies is the first in the US to shred the shovels so that they can be used in the production of cement. Is this the best way to get rid of old shovels?
Cement production is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Can producing it this way really reduce emissions?
We traveled to Missouri to see if recycling wind turbine blades could help reduce the world’s growing amount of waste.
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The first wind turbine in the USA was built at the end of the 19th century. It was 18 meters high and could power about three modern houses. Currently, onshore wind turbines have an average height of 160 m. An average turbine can power more than 460 homes.
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The largest sea turbine is over 260 m high. Onshore turbine blades are usually about 50 m long. That’s more than four school buses parked side by side. The shovels are usually made of a combination of fiberglass and balsa wood.
Chris Howell, Senior Chief Operating Officer, Veolia: This material is incredibly durable. The challenge is to reverse that engineering and physically break down the material.
Narrator: In recent years, turbine blades have accumulated in landfills. This is the problem that Veolia has decided to solve. He gets the shovels from GE Renewable Energy.
These shovels are only 8 to 12 years old. They come from all over the United States and go to the city of Louisiana, Missouri. There, workers cut them before sending them to the shredder.
Matthew Jensen, Field Operations Officer: The biggest challenge is to cut them up so that they can be let go through the shredder without damaging anything.
Narrator: This machine is powerful enough to crush 6m lengths into pieces the size of a football. The pieces of shovels go to the next shredder. The sorting machine then separates the remaining large pieces.
Chris: It is hard to believe that it was once a 36 m long wind turbine blade.
Narrator: Veolia also processes non-hazardous medical waste. Some of them are mixed with material from the blades. At the moment, GE pays Veolia to recycle the blades, and Veolia pays to ship the end product to the cement plant.
Chris: We currently have no profits. Our motivation is to prevent this material from being dumped in landfills.
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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.
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 discovernew 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.
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