Wind turbine blades continue to cause pollution problems for those around them. [emphasis, links added]
An eastern Iowa farm's 240 acres are strewn with dust and debris from broken wind turbine blades that the wind farm owners say they won't clean up.
According to Steve Weitz and Theresa Weitz communiquéagreed to an easement in 2012 allowing Acciona Wind Power to install two turbines on the family farm near Mechanicsville, Iowa. Both turbines have been struck by lightning in the past 18 months, including one twice.
The last time this happened was on August 15. A neighbor called his family early in the morning and said: “Your wind turbine is on fire again.
Now that harvesting is underway, the debris is hurting the family's farming business. As the leaf fragments dug deeper into the topsoil, the family worried it would contaminate their corn.
Acciona demolished one of its foundations after the landowner waited for months, a company spokesman said communiquéthey are in discussions with the landowner to determine the best way to remove the second foundation.
this [spokesperson also said] The process is complicated because the wind tower's foundation is made of concrete and steel.
The family asked the company to use a crane rather than explosives to dismantle the second tower, which could spread more debris on the farm. The company said the crane was not safe.
Cedar County, where Mechanicsville is located, requires a decommissioning bond, but that does not cover cleanup work.
Leaf contamination has become a growing concern after blades disintegrated in the Vineyard Winds project off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.
In July, the blade broke off and fell into the ocean, and fragments of it continue to wash up on beaches in Nantucket, New York state and Rhode Island.
Data on blade failures is hard to come by, but according to a 2018 article in an industry publication, the failure rate for blades is 0.5%.
At that time, there were 700,000 blades spinning in wind farms around the world. Since then, wind energy production has increased by about 80%.
While it's difficult to say how many blades are still spinning today based on increases in power generation alone, there are approximately 1.27 million blades today. This means that more than 6,300 turbine blades are lost every year around the world.
Public live broadcast The Nantucket Island Commission is hiring damage experts to assess the economic damage to the area's fishing and tourism industries and the economic damage caused by the incident, the report said. The Nantucket government is also studying the possibility of other blade breakages.
The blade is made by GE Vernova, which also makes another blade that fractured a turbine at the Dogger Bank project off the coast of England. This is the second broken blade on this project.
GE Vernova blamed the Vineyard incident on “manufacturing deviations,” but the company blamed the Dogger Bank blade failure on installation and operating errors.
The Vineyard Wind project currently has five turbines in operation and plans to install 62 turbines. new bedford light It was reported last week that a vessel delivering towers, nacelles and 300-foot-long blades to Vineyard Wind was carrying at least two blades at the Port of New Bedford.
Citing ship tracking data, Light The report said the ship was not heading to a vineyard wind project but to a port in France where GE Vernova has a blade manufacturing plant.
Neither GE Vernova nor Vineyard Wind responded to requests for comment. lamp Requested comment on the reasons for the return of the blades to France.
Even if wind blades don't malfunction, they pose a waste problem because they are difficult, if not impossible, to recycle.
A 2017 study estimated that the wind industry will produce 43 million tons of scrap blades by 2050.
Blade recycling programs are considering using shredded blades as filler or making furniture or other items out of them, but have yet to find a long-term solution.
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