The blades on the newest wind turbines sweep an area longer than a football field and are nearly impossible to recycle. At the end of their lifespan of around 20 years, they are chopped into pieces and buried in a handful of landfills across the Great Plains. Those few sites in Wyoming, Iowa and South Dakota have a spooky nickname: wind turbine graveyards.
Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have developed what they say is a turbine blade made from plant material that can be recycled. The new substance is made from inedible sugar extracted from wood, plant remains, used cooking oil and agricultural waste.
The prototype they developed can perform as well as traditional blades that are made from a combination of fiberglass and plastic and which have been very difficult to reuse. The new, recyclable material could be easily adopted by industry, said Robynne Murray, one of the researchers at the national laboratory.
This waste problem from a growing source of low carbon energy could become a headache of the past.
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