Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Wind blades 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

According to the Texas naturalist in yesterday's video, there's no good plan for the "end of usable life" for these wind turbine blades. Thousands have piled up in graveyard sites so far. 

DOE (U.S. Dept. of Energy) reports that 500 manufacturing facilities across the country make components of these turbines. They try to improve quality, reliability, cost effectiveness. 

And they work on transportation. Why is that an issue? These blades are enormous and getting even bigger: "an average utility-scale wind turbine [includes] blades up to 100 meters (over 300 feet) in length and towers around 94 meters (308 feet) high, roughly the height of the Statue of Liberty." 

How would you transport (costing $30k-$100k) turbine parts so huge to a local farm? It can take a year's planning and as many as ten loads. This photo will help you grasp the scale:

 

from U.S. Department of Energy

(cont'd tomorrow)

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