Recycling Wind Turbine Blades: a Farmer’s Ingenuity

By Tod Bowman

Wind turbine blades play a crucial part in clean energy generation, but their disposal poses a growing challenge. Luckily, innovative solutions provide new ways to keep them out of landfills.

As the wind industry grows, there is an increasing need for replacement of older wind turbine blades with larger, more efficient ones. With a lifespan of approximately 25 years, the sheer number of blades and other components that will eventually need to be decommissioned will strain current repurposing and recycling capabilities, leading to increased landfill waste if new solutions are not developed.

To address the challenge, developers and rural communities have explored various recycling initiatives. One approach, mechanical recycling, typically uses a shredding facility to break down turbine parts. Companies, like REGEN Fiber in Iowa, use the resulting product to create construction materials such as concrete by mixing fiberglass with rock or plastic.

Greg Birkhofer, an Iowan with a passion for conservation, has taken blade recycling a step further by repurposing the most challenging section—the eight-foot base—into fence posts for agricultural use.