Posted on 03/01/2023 8:04:37 PM PST by CFW
The speed by which wind farms are being constructed across the U.S. is going faster than a spring wind in Casper. In about 20 years, the wind turbines put into operation today will be nearing the end of their lifespan. The ones built 20 years ago are nearing it now.
Since the blades are very difficult to recycle, the waste stream created by the retired blades is a mounting problem.
According to a 2017 study published in the scientific journal Waste Management, the world’s wind industry will be producing 43 million tons of blade waste annually by 2050.
(Excerpt) Read more at cowboystatedaily.com ...
Don’t bitch too much Mr. Kellough or they’ll get dumped in your state.
Build the wall with old wind blades.
Disposing of the turbines will largely be a Texas problem as the state produces the most wind power and wind is one of the state’s largest power sources.
“Y’all fidna gestroy da erf!” —Gredda Thunderburger
When I was in the power industry, “life extension” was a common strategy for power plants nearing the end of the their 30 year design life span. We usually could extend the life out to 50 years without major investments. Plants I started up in the early 70s were decommissioned 30 to 40 years later and sometimes they were carefully reassembled, sold to other countries, and reassembled there to finish their lives. If the entire plant wasn’t sold, the value of the scrap steel was high and it was recycled. There was almost nothing in a conventional power plant that could not be easily recycled. Even the concrete floors and the asphalt parking lots were crushed for re-use in new asphalt and concrete.
No such “life extension” will be possible with wind turbines or solar cells. In fact, when the companies go bankrupt, the towers will stand forever mute as testaments to the utter energy insanity of the early 21st century. Millions of tons of concrete buried in the ground will stay there forever and the towers will finally rust and fall after decades or centuries. Meanwhile, those towers will stand as useless sentinels across our beautiful country as a testament to our energy folly.
It really hacks me off because no coal mine can be opened without the developer paying a huge surety bond up front that the land will be restored when the mine is closed decades in the future. No such surety bonds are paid for the monstrous wind turbines. Eventually, it will take a massive Superfund III to tear all the defunct wind turbine towers down.
I don’t understand how this is all “clean and sustainable.” Sounds like a huge fraud.
That is a great summary of what lies ahead. Thank you for posting it!
[[By 2050, Used Wind Turbine Blades Will Exceed 43 Million Tons Of Waste Every Year]]
I’m surprised the gov isn’t taking them and recycling them into bird shot to shoot down eagles and other endangered birds with
It may be possible:
But, I would prefer to NEVER see another one.
“shoot down eagles and other endangered birds with”
Nah, they would recycle them into shot for shooting down Chinese balloons.
I’m thinking about starting a company to convert old wind turbines into organic fertilizer. That won’t work, of course. But in the meantime I’ll be getting lots of government grant money…and maybe even a Nobel Prize.
So what’s not to like?
Nonsense. Wind turbines are repowered all the time and end-of-life responsibilities are part of permitting.
And notice how all the “wind farms” have to be placed in rural areas where farm pastures were previously located. All to prove power to the large cities who want to virtue signal their “green living” without have to look at the massive wind turbines and acres of solar panels that will be required to provide the occasional electricity they will receive.
There is absolutely no way current green technology can produce sufficient power to maintain our nation’s current needs and lifestyle. We will be returning to a 17th century lifestyle in order to “save humanity”. Life spans will be reduced, all productivity will drop to a crawl, and innovation as to new products, including medical breakthroughs, will cease. We will spend our days working to produce enough food and other necessities to stay alive another day, and electricity will be rationed and intermittent.
>> But, I would prefer to NEVER see another one.
Yep. The shredded-blades-as-fuel concept looks like some high-priced fuel! Shipped to GERMANY. I’m sure it’s part of the indulgence ...sorry, “carbon credit” scam we’re infested with. That’s the only way it could conceivably balance in any economic equation.
And those playgrounds, bike sheds, bridges, other assorted crapola... well, back in the day my parents had a word for it: “tacky”.
Old joke. But anyway, it’s now the year 2050:
Child, lighting a candle: Dad, what did people use for light before candles?
Dad: Light bulbs.
Ever try to get rid of a fiberglass boat?
Just about impossible. Even if you burn it there is still a pile of stuff left. And don’t breathe the fumes. Great huge black clouds of fumes from all the plastic resin of course.
We can only hope someone with some sense and power stops all this green crap before it goes waaaaay too far.
We drove out west a few years ago. Turbines everywhere. Every ridge across Oklahoma, Texas and so forth all the way to Oregon. My wife marveled having never seen them and began asking questions as we traveled. Not a wind turbing expert but I am an engineer and I read a lot. She asked about what they were made of, how much maintenance they required, the hazards to them and how long they last. I told her about fatigue of the blades and how eventually they would crack or shatter leaving the reinforcing strands of glass fiber or graphite fabric blowing in the wind if they were not replaced. She asked about repairing them, nope, recycling them, not yet nobody has found a use though one outfit is working on making pellets for something out of them.
We drove on and she began to laugh as we saw yet another ridge line of turbines. I asked her why she laughed. She said she was imagining them strung out with the shattered and tattered blades flapping in the wind. Decrepit and abandoned eye sores.
It is coming. I hope someone ends this insanity before it goes far too far.
There will be a lot more carnage if the democraps eliminate “fossil” (BTW - no such thing) lubricants which are used lubricate the moving parts.
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