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Old Wind Turbine Blades Pile Up in West Texas
Posted on 9/13/23 at 3:02 pm
Posted on 9/13/23 at 3:02 pm
The green movement never wants to discuss cradle-to-grave issues. Whether it's how the minerals are minded or disposed of for electric cars or topics like the disposal of wind turbine blades, these things are off-limits for discussion.
Texas Monthly - Old Wind Turbine Blades Pile Up in West Texas
![](https://img.texasmonthly.com/2023/08/sweetwater-wind-blades.jpg?auto=compress&crop=faces&fit=fit&fm=webp&h=0&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=45&w=1170)
quote:
Officials in Sweetwater say an out-of-state company has made their town a dump for the seldom-seen trash created by renewable energy.
quote:
When forklifts deposited the first of these in a field behind the apartment complex where Pamala Meyer lives, on the west side of town, in 2017, she wasn’t initially bothered. But then the blades—between 150 and 200 feet in length and mostly made of composite materials such as fiberglass with a binding resin—kept coming. Each was cut into thirds, with each segment longer than a school bus. Thousands arrived over several years, eventually blanketing more than thirty acres, in stacks rising as high as basketball backboards. Every few dozen feet, a break among the stacks leads into an industrial hedge maze.
quote:
Besides the main boneyard—behind Meyer’s apartment—stacks of blades also occupy ten acres a couple miles south of town, and the company is storing blades in other locations in the county. “They have, in my view, abandoned them there,” said Samantha Morrow, the Nolan County attorney. “The county doesn’t have and cannot find millions of dollars to clean this up.”
quote:
The Sweetwater piles are also at least partly the indirect result of a rule clarification the Internal Revenue Service issued in 2016. Before then, a wind farm could collect valuable federal tax credits for only its first ten years of operation. But the IRS determined that it would restart the clock on the credits if a wind farm “repowered” its turbines—replacing most of their equipment with newer parts. So, despite the expected two-decade lifespan for turbine blades, wind farms across Texas and other states began replacing many that remained in good shape years early.
quote:
Sweetwater isn’t the only place Global Fiberglass has stockpiled blades. It has a total of 1,300 in Newton, Iowa, and two other cities in that state, according to the state’s Department of Natural Resources. After an investigation, the agency concluded in 2021 there was no recycling going on, nor was any likely to happen. It declared the company to be running an unpermitted dump.
Texas Monthly - Old Wind Turbine Blades Pile Up in West Texas
![](https://img.texasmonthly.com/2023/08/sweetwater-wind-blades.jpg?auto=compress&crop=faces&fit=fit&fm=webp&h=0&ixlib=php-3.3.1&q=45&w=1170)
Posted on 9/13/23 at 3:06 pm to DaBike
I saw where they were grinding them up and burning them in the cement kilns
Posted on 9/13/23 at 3:09 pm to tigerinexile
quote:
I saw where they were grinding them up and burning them in the cement kilns
If that's happening, I wonder what the emissions impact is on the environment?
Posted on 9/13/23 at 3:12 pm to DaBike
Wonder what a good tornado could do to the stuff downwind of those dumps.
Posted on 9/13/23 at 3:12 pm to Purple Spoon
quote:
Those things are fiberglass?
Mostly, yes
Posted on 9/13/23 at 3:40 pm to DaBike
Like most green initiatives, they do not consider the second and third order affects of their actions...
Wait until the car batteries start piling up...
Wait until the car batteries start piling up...
Posted on 9/13/23 at 3:55 pm to DaBike
quote:
Old Wind Turbine Blades Pile Up in West Texas
For the reptile enthusiasts among us, you'll be happy to hear about all this new habitat for Western Diamondback and Prairie rattlesnakes. All the unused border wall panels left to the weather along our southern border accomplished this same feat as well.
Democrats: Making Rattlesnakes Great Again!
Posted on 9/13/23 at 4:02 pm to DaBike
Somebody made some good money off that racket
Posted on 9/13/23 at 4:08 pm to ALTiger
Made off with out hard earn tax money
Posted on 9/13/23 at 4:10 pm to tigerinexile
quote:
I saw where they were grinding them up and burning them in the cement kilns
What is the fuel used for the burn. Is that Solar?
Posted on 9/13/23 at 4:11 pm to DaBike
I wonder if those stacks of blades would make a good artificial reef.
Posted on 9/13/23 at 4:13 pm to The Maj
quote:
Wait until the car batteries start piling up...
Nah, they are burning along with the automobile.
Saves land fills.
Communists have a record of creating problems instead of solutions.
Government bureaucrats have never solved a problem efficiently.
Posted on 9/13/23 at 4:19 pm to DaBike
Killing wildlife, ginormous mining sites (for lithium), unsightly dumps for old blades.
Sounds very “green” and Earth friendly.
Clown world.
Sounds very “green” and Earth friendly.
Clown world.
Posted on 9/13/23 at 4:19 pm to Auburn1968
Had the same thought. Someone should determine if they could be used in a coastal restoration project.
Or grind them up and use them as the base for new roads/sidewalks.
Or grind them up and use them as the base for new roads/sidewalks.
Posted on 9/13/23 at 4:26 pm to DaBike
Oh shite, this reminds me of an article i read about the blades.
this company said used blades would be able to be recycled into gummy bears. I lol'd
this company said used blades would be able to be recycled into gummy bears. I lol'd
Posted on 9/13/23 at 4:29 pm to bayouboo
quote:
Had the same thought. Someone should determine if they could be used in a coastal restoration project.
If they make good habitat for rattle snakes, fish would likely really go for those hollow tubes.
This is an old oil rig.
![](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffishbio.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2FSnapper-by-oil-platform.png&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=041062a6143b728ff2078a67dfdd4ee845bdffb225ddbbd5d4b92dc654d4a855&ipo=images)
Posted on 9/13/23 at 4:50 pm to DaBike
Remember visiting GE Energy's Wind Turbine mfg facility in Pensacola. Was watching them get made...they are so huge when standing in front of one. Then I had to get back to my job that I was there for....LOL
Posted on 9/13/23 at 4:56 pm to DaBike
So many of these "green initiatives" are scams. It's truly a shame how many gullible people continue to believe this is all better for the environment than simply burning fossil fuels or even nuclear. But you know, eventually, the experiment will come full circle and we'll be right back to where we were before all this hippy madness.
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