Interestingly, blade waste, when put in comparison to the size of the population, is pretty negligible.<p>As per the article, the EU will discard about 650k tons of blades between 2044 and 2049, or 130k tons per year. That's less than 300 grams (or 0.7 lb) per EU citizen.<p>I'm wondering if these waste could not better be reused as construction material (e.g. grinded to pieces and then used as concrete aggregate).
So what percentage of items constructed from epoxy composites are wind turbine blades? How can this be more than a rounding error compared to sailboats, sports equipment and whatever else?
Fiberglass repair is quite well understood. Part of the problem is some early turbine blades used wood cores which are incredibly difficult to repair. But if they used synthetic cores (coosa board) they'd have a stable core to repair for centuries.
Maybe they figure it costs more to repair than to replace, which could easily be true. Either way it's not a huge problem, look how much the average American tosses in the trash every week. But I'd still like them repaired
At some point I expect blades will be made from thermoplastic composites, not thermosets. Then it will just be a matter of melting the blades to recycle them. A lot is happening in that area at least, thermoplastics for airplanes are very actively researched
<i>Although many blades are made from polyester, producing wind turbine blades manufactured with epoxy-based resin has increasingly become standard practice in the wind industry over the past decades. In the most mature wind markets, the first of these turbines are reaching the end of their operational life</i><p>Interesting, why polyester?
It does annoy me somewhat that wind turbines are all of eco friendly, short lifespan, made from plastic and concrete at the same time. Unpopular opinion though.