Used Wind Turbine Blades Pileup in Texas

May 24, 2024 – When a wind turbine reaches the end of its life cycle, roughly 85% of its components — including the steel tower, copper wire and gearing — can be recycled. Turbine blades, however, have proven to be a bigger challenge.

Made primarily from fiberglass, these blades lack the metals and minerals that attract recyclers. They are also coated with epoxy resins (made from oil) that make them particularly difficult to crush. As a result, most retired turbine blades end up incinerated or in landfills.

To deal with this challenge, the world’s biggest turbine makers are stepping up efforts to create recyclable blades. But perfecting that technology, and implementing it, will take years. In the meantime, turbines installed in the early aughts are starting to reach the end of their lifespan. In Europe alone, roughly 25,000 metric tons of wind turbine blades will be phased out each year by 2025, according to some estimates.

That’s where the startups come in.

“We’re delaying the disposal,” says Angela Nagle, a former Intel engineer who in 2022 co-founded Ireland-based BladeBridge to convert decommissioned turbine blades into pedestrian bridges. Although the upcycled bridges will eventually reach the end of their lifecycle, too, Nagle says they buy the technology some time. “It’s delaying the problem to see if somebody else can find a third life solution,” she says.

BladeBridge is one of a handful of companies turning old wind turbine blades into new products. Whether park benches, bike racks or playgrounds, these upcycled goods aren’t always cost competitive — at least not yet. But the early adopters are making progress that’s needed to prevent the clean-energy transition from developing environmental downsides of its own. The prices for these objects can be as high as $10,000.

The U.S. currently has very little regulation regarding the disposal of wind turbine blades. Adding to the problem is the fact that blades have gotten longer during the last 30 years, as wind technology has advanced, creating longer blades and shorter turbine towers for better energy production.

Send the Blades to Sweetwater Texas

In Sweetwater Texas, two “graveyards” for retired turbine blades have appeared in recent years. Hundreds of the football field-sized blades have been cut into thirds and laid out in pastures. The sawed edges of the blades stacked on top of each other and spread out over a 10-acre field can be seen just off Highway 70, south of Sweetwater. Another blade graveyard stretches across an industrial field across from the city’s only graveyard off of Interstate 20. Click here to see a Google Earth satellite view of the blades.