Fiberglass turbine blades — which in some cases are as long a football field — aren’t easy to recycle. And with BloombergNEF expecting up to 2 gigawatts worth of turbines to be refitted this year and next, there could be heaps more headed for dumps.
Cynthia Langston, solid waste division manager for the city of Casper, is happy to have the turbine debris. The 1,000 blades will bring in about $675,000 for the landfill, helping keep trash costs low for local residents. Plus, Langston said, wind-farm junk is less toxic than other garbage. “It’s much cleaner than the contaminated soil and demolition projects from the oil and gas industry,” Langston said in an interview. “These are about as non-toxic as you can get.”
Wind turbine blades represent a “vanishingly small fraction” of overall waste in the U.S., according to the American Wind Energy Association. Sachin Shah, chief executive officer of one of the world’s largest clean-power operators, Brookfield Renewable Partners LP, said “there will be an aggressive effort to re-use materials” in the years ahead.