Old wind turbine blades need a plan

OPINION One thing I regularly do with visitors to Geraldton is take them on a small tour. This usually includes locations like the Point Moore Lighthouse, the HMAS Sydney II Memorial and the Greenough hamlet. If time permits I also like to include a visit to Ellendale Pool near Walkaway. Not so long ago on the way to Ellendale Pool with a young Japanese man I stopped in the car park next to one of the wind turbines on the Nangetty — Walkaway Road. It really gives you an appreciation of how big the turbines are and particularly the size of the blades. “What happens when the blades wear out?” My visitor’s question took me by surprise. I hadn’t ever thought of the giant blades, which are roughly 50m long, wearing out as they swooshed through the air. But apparently they do have a limited life. “What do you do with old and worn out wind farm blades?” I don’t know but I suspect they can’t be repaired and recycled. Whether we like it or not, many of our environmental friendly industries have been developed in the US and wind turbines and wind farms are no exception. Creating electricity by using the wind goes back to the nineteenth century, but the Americans were the first with a large scale wind farm, although apparently it failed, as the equipment broke down and the predicted wind failed to materialise! However those days are long gone and now there are 55,000 wind turbines operating successfully in the US, while Australia has 2500. WA accounts for more than 300 of these. But that doesn’t answer the question of what to do once the blades reach their use-by date. While most of the turbine components can be put to other uses it is a different story with the blades. In the US nearly all find their way into landfill sites. At the moment they don’t appear to have any commercial worth and no potential for any other purpose. Blades generally have a working life of 25 years. The world’s biggest wind turbine blade graveyard is in Casper, Wyoming. Thousands have been buried there in the last couple of years. It is a problem we will also have to confront when the blades that now do their part in generating power for our State can no longer cut it.