There are lots of
wind turbines
in upstate Michigan.
When you're driving
toward them
in your car,
they appear small
in the distance.
One mile later
you still seem
far away.
When you finally get
to the usual farmer's field,
where they are located,
then they seem huge.
And that was
ten years ago
-- they're even
bigger now.
Minnesota:
Xcel Energy estimates
it will cost $532,000
(in 2019 dollars)
to decommission
each of its wind turbines
after it wears out,
or becomes obsolete.
A total of $71 million
to decommission
the 134 turbines
at its Noble facility.
Decommissioning the
Palmer’s Creek Wind
facility in Chippewa
County, Minnesota,
is estimated
to cost $7,385,822 for
the 18 wind turbines,
or $410,000 per turbine.
Decommissioning and
restoration includes
removal of all physical
material and equipment
to a depth of 48 inches.
Concrete foundations
to anchor a wind turbine,
are up to 15 feet deep.
If you are replacing
a turbine with a larger
one, as has been common,
the old base is too small
for the new, larger turbine
Other than the base and
blades, 90% of the
actual turbine can
be recycled, or sold
to a wind farm in Asia
or Africa.
The United States
will have more than
720,000 tons
of blade material to
dispose of over the
next 20 years, not
including the new
taller higher-capacity
wind turbines.
Decommissioning Blades
Blades are made of a mix
of resin and fiberglass.
They are 100
to 300 feet long,
believe it or not,
so must be cut
into many pieces.
Rotor blades contain
glass and carbon fibers
so they give off dust and
toxic gases when cut up.
Landfills that have capacity
for cut up blades, may not
have expensive equipment
large enough to crush them.
One clever landfill
without that
equipment,
cuts the blades
into three pieces
and stuffs the two
smaller sections
into the third,
to take up
less space.
One clever company
with a recycling facility
in central Texas
grinds blades up
to make small pellets
sold for use as
for decking materials,
pallets and drain
pipes.
The U.S. has about
100 gigawatts
of wind capacity
and the life span
of wind power is
generally no
more than 20 years
-- less for turbines
located offshore
in salt water.
A wind turbine
could become
obsolete many
years before
it is worn out.
Conventional
fossil fuel
electric turbines,
located indoors,
last two to
three times
as long as the
wind turbines
located outdoors.
In 2018,
421 megawatts
of wind power were
decommissioned
in Europe—down from
683 megawatts in 2017.
Most of the 2018
decommissioned
turbines were
in Germany
(249 megawatts),
the Netherlands
(72 megawatts)
and Austria
(29 megawatts).
A majority of
decommissioned
wind turbines
were "re-powered"
(repopulated with
new turbines).
Germany has 28,000+
wind turbines,
and by 2023
more than a third
will be disposed of
through
decommissioning, or
sale to other countries.
Conclusion
Decommissioning
the wind turbines
when their useful life
is over, is an expensive
problem rarely included
in calculations of the
cost of wind power.
Few landfills have
the capacity and
the equipment
to break down
the huge rotor
blades.