Speaking to the crowd of young conservatives, the President touted his knowledge of wind power and turbines, saying “I know windmills very much. But should we be asking how much energy we need in the first place? It's a broader question that the Paris Interdisciplinary Energy Research Institute (LIED) is attempting to answer.President Donald Trump kicked off his holiday week with a speech at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Florida on Saturday. The industry is striving to improve production, efficiency and circularity. But if you're asking when we will reach that 100 percent, I think that will still take a while,” says Lisa Ekstrand, Head of Sustainability at Vestas. “Our blades are today roughly recyclable at a rate of 42 percent, 42, 43 percent. The ultimate goal is to produce a 100 percent recyclable blade. That in turn will see demand for recycled materials rise.ĭanish wind power giant Vestas insists it is doing a lot to improve sustainability across the entire value chain, from design to manufacture. Representatives from the wind energy industry believe calls for a EU-wide landfill ban will accelerate the scaling up of recycling technology. We are working with pioneering companies in sectors as diverse as ceramics, construction, and transport - including the automotive and aeronautic sectors," said David Romero, Reciclalia's Chief Operating Officer.ĭanish wind power giant Vestas says it is working hard to recycle turbine blades. “We are able to eliminate all the organic matter that is present in these composite materials, so that in the end we obtain the glass fibre and, more importantly, the carbon fibre, which is clean, so it can be used again. By the end of 2021 they say they will be able to recycle 1,500 blades a year. One Spanish startup, Reciclalia, takes blades from France, Portugal and North Africa. The technology remains relatively new and drastically needs to be scaled up. Right now only a handful of facilities in Europe can recycle blades. The blades are admittedly non-toxic and technically, they are landfill safe, but it is a waste of valuable resources and it is incompatible with the wind industry's commitment to full circularity that we should be putting blade waste in landfill,” said Giles Dickson, CEO, Wind Europe. “We do not want these blades to end up in landfill. The leading voice of Europe’s wind energy industry has called for a Europe-wide landfill ban by 2025. Only four countries in Europe - Germany, Austria, The Netherlands and Finland - have banned blades being sent to landfill. “We do not want these blades to end up in landfill." This image above of a blade graveyard in the US has become symbolic of the darker side of this renewable energy. In Europe, most blades that are not reused or incinerated, end up in landfill. These are made from composite materials that were intended to last and are not easily recyclable.Īerial view of a turbine blade graveyard in the US euronews While up to 90 percent of a wind turbine can now be recycled, the problem remains the blades. Repowering means some 5,700 wind turbines per year could be decommissioned in Europe by 2030. We will surpass 9,000 Kilowatts per hour. This means we will triple the electricity produced. We will go from 2 to 4.2 Megawatts per turbine. Élisabeth Calenza, a project manager from Engie Belgium, says the new turbines will be far more productive. The process, called repowering, has begun all over Europe. The majority are up for renewal and need replacing as they are part of the first generation of wind turbines that were built in the 1990s. But only a small number of these will go because of local opposition from residents. Out with the old, in with the newĪ huge number of wind turbines will soon be dismantled across Europe. “The Bernagues wind turbines are a symbol, a symbol of all the turbines that should be destroyed or dismantled on all the mountain ridges in France,” Marion argues. Marion and other residents rally outside the Bernagues wind farm euronewsĪt the start of June, Marion called on residents to rally outside the Bernagues wind farm after the site’s developer won a court appeal preventing the disputed wind turbines from being dismantled.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |