What happens when the renewable energy infrastructure breaks down? With the relatively recent push towards renewable energy, the breakdown of that equipment often times has yet to be addressed. Though renewable energy equipment is built to last decades, it does eventually break. And as of now we don't have a great way to deal with renewable energy waste. Nearly 90% of used solar panels end up in landfills. By 2050, it's expected that the wind industry will produce more than 47 million tons of blade waste per year. Even more extreme, right now there are few ways to recycle damaged wind turbine blades causing most blades to end up in landfills or buried. But one company in Missouri may be making headway on this. Veolia, a North American based company, is making steps in partnership with GE Renewable Energy to reduce the number of wind turbine blades ending up in landfills. To do this, GE pays Veolia to take the blades. First Veolia chops them into 20-foot sections and then they grind them down into a confetti-like blend. Veolia then pays cement manufacturers to burn the wind turbine blade confetti in their cement manufacturing process for fuel. By burning the shredded blades instead of coal, the cement manufacturers reduce their CO2 emissions by 27%. Just one step towards a cleaner future for energy!
References:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/renewable-energy-waste-solar-panels-wind-turbines/
https://www.businessinsider.com/recycle-wind-turbine-blades-veolia-north-america-waste-landfills-2023-2#figuring-out-how-to-recycle-it-now-could-save-a-major-headache-down-the-road-veolia-a-waste-water-and-energy-management-company-is-trying-to-do-just-that-5
https://www.veolianorthamerica.com/media/newsroom/cbs-news-features-veolia-north-americas-wind-turbine-blade-recycling-program
