Hi, what are you looking for?
Europe’s Energy Crisis Will Be Short-Lived & Reap Benefits
Solar Energy Saved Europeans $29 Billion This Summer
Renewable Energy From Local Sources — California Edition
How to Keep US Congress in the Hands of the Only Party that Believes in Global Warming: Part 2
Europe’s Energy Crisis Will Be Short-Lived & Reap Benefits
First Serious Grid-Scale Battery Connected In Denmark At Vestas Headquarters
A Path for Improved Wind Blade Recycling Rates
How to Keep US Congress in the Hands of the Only Party that Believes in Global Warming: Part 2
NREL Study Identifies Opportunities & Challenges of Achieving the U.S. Transformational Goal of 100% Clean Electricity by 2035
New Lithium StoryMap & the Future of Electrification
Enhanced Geothermal Technology Cracks The 24/7 Energy Code
Decarbonizing Data Centers — It’s Fun!
Most Renewables Now Cheaper Than Cheapest Coal
Kenya Elections: Electric Mobility, Utility Scale Battery Storage, Energy Efficiency & Green Hydrogen Feature Prominently
Tesla Megapack Factory On A Hiring Spree
Talon Metals Finds More Nickel in USA
First Serious Grid-Scale Battery Connected In Denmark At Vestas Headquarters
Tesla 4680 Battery Update — Scaling Up Is Hard Work
Snow Lake To Supply Enough Lithium For 5 Million Electric Car Batteries Over 10 Years
Biden–Harris Admin Launches $10.5 Billion Investment to Strengthen America’s Electric Grid
Electric Vehicles Don’t Break The Grid, And They Can Help Boost It
Stryten Energy Applauds Investments in Energy Security & U.S. Manufacturers With Passage Of Inflation Reduction Act
First V2G (Vehicle to Grid) System on Launches NYC Grid
Comparing The US & China On Climate, Economy, & Other Outcomes Should Be Deeply Humbling For America
Switching The World To Renewable Energy Will Cost $62 Trillion, But The Payback Would Take Just 6 Years
Understanding The High Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Act (HEEHRA)
Questions About IRA Benefits? Rewiring America Has The Answers
10 Big Cleantech Benefits in Inflation Reduction Act
A Cheap Clean RV Option Emerges
Want a Tesla Supercharger Nearby? Tell Tesla to Add Your City to a Poll
Jeep Unveils 3 New Battery Electric Models (With Video)
Talon Metals Finds More Nickel in USA
Trying to Impress Country Folk with a Tesla Model 3
Use the Power Poles for Electric Cars!
7 Best Cars & Trucks On The Market Starting Under $70,000 (USA)
Varla Pegasus Powers Up Your Morning Commute
3-Year Review of Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus (SR+)
Gooloo GTX 280 Compact Power Station — CleanTechnica Review
CleanTechnica Tested: Vanpowers Super Power Pro 2000 Portable Power Station
Germany’s Plugin EVs Resume Growth, Tesla Model Y Leads
UK Auto Market Struggling But Full Electrics Still Growing
France’s Plugin EVs Back To Modest Growth, Renault Megane Favourite
Norway’s Plugin EVs Still Falling, For Reasons
Sweden Plugin EV Share At 46.1% In August
7 Best Cars & Trucks On The Market Starting Under $70,000 (USA)
Varla Pegasus Powers Up Your Morning Commute
3-Year Review of Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus (SR+)
Gooloo GTX 280 Compact Power Station — CleanTechnica Review
CleanTechnica Tested: Vanpowers Super Power Pro 2000 Portable Power Station
Exploring XPeng’s Self-Driving Tech Live — 1 Hour+, No Interventions!
2022 Nissan Leaf S Plus — CleanTechnica Review (VIDEO)
Ford F-150 Lightning — CleanTechnica Review
Tesla Q4 Shareholder Conference Call — Watch & Listen Here
Volkswagen Group — In-Depth Conference Call Highlights Company’s Focus On Transition
Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are considering circular economy strategies to mitigate the impact of wind turbine blades at the end of their useful lifespan.
The strategies are meant to address what to do with the blades once they are no longer needed, including using new materials that are easier to break down, extending their lifespan, and implementing various recycling options. Researchers at NREL have been investigating novel blade materials that are inherently more recyclable, thereby integrating solutions at the earliest stages of turbine component design.
“We want to see everything recycled, ideally,” said Aubryn Cooperman, an engineering analyst at NREL and coauthor of a new paper outlining the steps that need to be taken.
Realistically, however, as wind turbines reach the end of their useful, expected 20-year lifespan, some of the massive blades are bound to be discarded. More than 90% of wind energy facilities in the United States began generating power within the last decade. An estimated 10,000 to 20,000 blades annually are expected to be at the end of their lifespan between 2025 and 2040.
Owners of wind power plants will be increasingly faced with decisions about what to do with these blades, the researchers noted in a new paper, “Regional Representation of Wind Stakeholders’ End-of-Life Behaviors and Their Impact on Wind Blade Circularity.” In addition to Cooperman, the iScience article was coauthored by NREL researchers Julien Walzberg, Liam Watts, Annika Eberle, Alberta Carpenter, and Garvin Heath.
The scientists relied on a computer model that considers behavioral factors, which can undermine the viability of technical solutions. For example, a lack of trust in a new technology may keep it from reaching its full market potential. Therefore, the researchers point out, it is considered critical to understand the behavioral aspects of wind power industry stakeholders’ decisions. Those stakeholders run the gamut from operators of wind sites to companies in the recycling business. The modeling tool, developed by researchers at NREL and publicly available, is the Circular Economy Wind Agent-Based Model.
The researchers said that in the absence of policy change or recycling technology development, as much as 78% of decommissioned blades are expected to end up in landfills, though that still would be a relatively small percentage of the amount of discarded waste at an estimated 1% nationwide in 2050. Among the factors hindering recycling are high transportation costs and subjective norms, which discourage people from recycling the blades if they see others not already doing so. By encouraging enough early adopters, recycling blades would become the norm.
“Transportation costs are a huge factor, because the blades themselves are huge,” said Walzberg, the paper’s lead author. “If your recycling facility is far away, that’s going to make it a barrier for you to try to recycle.”
Lowering those transportation costs could make a significant difference in how the old blades are disposed of. The blades are typically made of steel, plastic, and composite materials. While many of the materials now commonly used for the blades are easily broken down, they can be shredded with the right equipment.
“Shredding the blades makes them smaller and easier to ship to a recycling facility,” Walzberg said. “That’s kind of a low-hanging fruit. But you need to be able to shred the blades before transportation.”
Even reducing the cost of shredding blades by a third before transportation could decrease the cumulative landfill rate below 50%, the scientists calculated in the new study. Another scenario that involves boosting early adoption of recycling so that it becomes the norm could bring the figure below 10%.
Walzberg said regulations could help boost recycling numbers as well and pointed to laws enacted to keep lead-acid batteries from landfills and old rubber tires from being burned.
The researchers said future work could study how increasing the number of recycling facilities for wind turbine blades could change the results. Meanwhile, other NREL scientists are already working on using new materials for blades that are intended to improve their recyclability.
The journal article builds on research published last year by Cooperman, working alongside Eberle and another NREL colleague, Eric Lantz. That article revealed “more profound shifts in recycling technologies, blade materials, or policy may be needed to move towards a circular economy for wind turbine blades.”
Funding for the research came from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office and the Office of Strategic Programs.
Learn more about NREL’s analysis efforts and research into wind energy and advanced manufacturing.
Courtesy of NREL, the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development.
The mission of the U.S. Energy Department is to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions. Learn more.
#1 most loved electric vehicle, solar energy, and battery news & analysis site in the world. Support our work today!
Advertise with CleanTechnica to get your company in front of millions of monthly readers.
The sun continuously transmits trillions of watts of energy to the Earth. It will be doing so for billions more years. Yet, we have...
Thermoelectric materials are important for clean energy technologies. Using neutron scattering, researchers unveiled details of the phonon renormalization mechanism.
Leadership from the DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office met with cybersecurity researchers at NREL in July 2022. Saleem (center), along with Jordan Peterson, Ryan...
What would it take to decarbonize the electric grid by 2035? A new report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) examines the types...
Copyright © 2021 CleanTechnica. The content produced by this site is for entertainment purposes only. Opinions and comments published on this site may not be sanctioned by and do not necessarily represent the views of CleanTechnica, its owners, sponsors, affiliates, or subsidiaries.