YESTERDAY IN PART 1 , GOVERNMENT DATA on our nation’s increased use of wind power were discussed. Today we address wind turbine longevity, current and future recyclability, and advanced optimizations of this technology.
Wind Turbine Longevity. Spectrum News NY 1 offers a What You Need to Know: “Wind turbine blades are a composite material made of fiberglass. We can recycle fiberglass, but it is not cost-effective to do so. The life span of a blade is approximately 20 years.”
Old wind blades stacked in a field owned by Global Fiberglass Solutions in Sweetwater, Texas. Image from Spectrum News/Ashely McElroy.
Current Recyclability. Spectrum News cites environmental options to trashed blades, among them shredding them into Portland cement additives or transforming them into composite panels, railroad ties, plastic pellets, and consumer goods.
Spectrum News concludes noting “With the hundreds of billions, perhaps trillions, being spent to green our energy production, we need to make sure we aren’t solving one problem and creating another.”
New Blade Aerodynamics. MIT News, August 21, 2024, notes, “The blades of propellers and wind turbines are designed based on aerodynamics principles that were first described mathematically more than a century ago.…
Now, for the first time, engineers at MIT have developed a comprehensive, physics-based model that accurately represents the airflow around rotors even under extreme conditions, such as when the blades are operating at high forces and speeds, or are angled in certain directions.”
MIT News continues, “The model could improve the way rotors themselves are designed, but also the way wind farms are laid out and operated. The new findings are described today in the journal Nature Communications, in an open-access paper by MIT postdoc Jaime Liew, doctoral student Kirby Heck, and Michael Howland, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering.”
This paper’s Abstract describes “a Unified Momentum Model to efficiently predict power production, thrust force, and wake dynamics of rotors under arbitrary inflow angles and thrust coefficients without empirical corrections…. This Unified Momentum Model can form a new basis for wind turbine modeling, design, and control tools from first principles and may enable further development of innovations necessary for increased wind production and reliability to respond to 21st century climate change challenges.”
Future Recyclability. Trends are for more (and larger) optimized wind turbines. And the replacement of aging or less optimized designs puts added pressure on recyclability. AAAS Science August 22, 2024, offers new technology in this regard: “Manufacture and Testing of Biomass-derivable Thermosets for Wind Blade Recycling,” by Ryan W. Clarke et al.
A Science Editor’s summary by Jake S. Yeston recounts, “Wind energy is a key component of the general push to power the world more sustainably. However, modern blades for use in wind turbines are assembled with epoxy resins that are resource intensive to manufacture and cannot be easily recycled. Clarke et al. report a polyester material for blade manufacture that can be derived from biomass and straightforwardly deconstructed for recycling at the end of its life by heating in methanol. Performance properties compared favorably to incumbent resins.”
Gee, I wonder if Trump reads AAAS Science. Or reads at all. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2024