John Phipps, a commentator on U.S. Farm Report, answers viewers’ questions during his Customer Support segment each week on the show.
This week a comment about renewable energy decommissioning costs:
“Since you are covering most of the positives about solar and wind, why not cover the backend HUGE waste issues? Solar and wind producing components are not recyclable! They are filling landfills with blades that do not decompose and panels that contain toxic items. Like car batteries, home and industrial batteries have to be replaced adding more cost! Please be balanced in your segments!”
This is from Scott Poteet, in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Waste issues for renewables may seem huge but not when compared to the alternatives. One problem is the availability bias – we gape at huge blades going down the highway and never notice thousands of garbage trucks. This criticism is similar to the claim green technologies aren’t emission free, which I’ll tackle next week.
First, solar panels are 90-95% recyclable, but too few have retired here to establish an industry, as is happening in France. Lithium/iron/phosphate batteries, the current standard, are 95% recyclable and required to be by the EPA. Turbine blades are not filling our landfills.
After I wasted several hours on a spreadsheet, I discovered the Electric Policy Research Institute, an independent nonprofit, had already calculated that all the blade waste through 2050 (roughly 25 years) would equal .015% of US solid waste for just one year. Since we are only beginning to replace blades, we are just now developing processes to handle these awkward products.
After blades are removed, the balance of the wind turbine is 85% recyclable. It’s steel and wiring mainly. The blades are cut in pieces to allow tighter packing and easier trucking. Made of fiberglass, carbon fibers, and epoxy, they do not pollute water tables, like old oil equipment, for example.
The need for proper disposal has prompted some landfills in Wyoming, South Dakota, and Iowa to specialize in receiving them. It has been lucrative for Casper, Wyoming, funding the entire waste department and more. In addition, a handful of startups will soon be grinding blades near or on-site to eliminate transportation costs.
Here are the numbers:
- We generate 270 million tons of solid municipal waste annually.
- Coal fired generators add another 140 million tons of often toxic coal ash and scrubber sludge.
- Turbine blades contribute an average 36,000 tons per year
There is waste with wind and solar but it is trivial compared to fossil fuel byproducts.
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John Phipps: You May Be Surprised Which States Provide Majority of the Wind Energy in the U.S.
John Phipps: What Solar and Electric Can Learn From Recent Wind Energy Woes
