Wait, Don’t Recycle Those Old Wind Turbines… Re-Use Them!

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Finish-of-life points have begun to bedevil the US wind trade as 1000’s of previous and out-of-date wind generators head for the dustbin of historical past. Thankfully, assistance is on the best way. Re-powering older wind farms with new tools is one technique to salvage at the very least some elements of an previous wind turbine for re-use as an alternative of dumping them in a landfill. One other strategy entails leveraging the rising distributed wind market to revive the entire turbine to life, from soup to nuts.

What’s So Massive About The Distributed Wind Turbine Market?

Whereas a lot consideration has centered on the massive scale of recent wind generators and wind farmsone other vital a part of the renewable vitality transition has been effervescent up from the US energy era panorama.

For those who guessed distributed wind is within the combine, run proper out and purchase your self a cigar. Distributed wind falls into the class of distributed vitality assets, which refers to a give attention to energy resilience and decentralizationfairly than persevering with to depend on the centralized energy era mannequin of the previous.

As described by the US Division of Power, wind generators of any dimension can match the distributed vitality assets mannequin, as long as they generate electrical energy to be used on website, or for contribution to an area distribution grid.

Increasing the foothold of small and mid-sized generators within the distributed vitality area has been a problem, particularly in comparison with the strong development of the marketplace for small rooftop and ground-mounted photo voltaic arrays. Nonetheless, the US Division of Power has been supporting the trouble.

Earlier this yr, for instance, the Power Division launched a brand new program in collaboration with the Division of Agriculture, aimed toward recruiting 400 farmers into the distributed wind fold.

“The new push for wind power builds on a US Department of Energy study that makes the case for pumping up the nation’s supply of distributed wind power, meaning hyper-local wind farms and individual wind turbines,” CleanTechnica reported in March.

Wind Generators & The Round Economic system Of The Future

With that in thoughts, let’s check out the wind turbine refurbishing agency Rockwind. The corporate reached out to CleanTechnica this week with a reminder that the US Division of Power tapped it for one in every of 20 awards in Section I of the new “Re-X Before Recycling Prize” competitors.

The Re-X program is aimed toward drawing consideration to the sustainability advantages of re-using varied merchandise and elements as an alternative of grinding them up or melting them down in a recycling middle.

“By stimulating innovation and private investment in circular economy approaches, the innovations developed through this prize will reduce life cycle energy and emissions, strengthen circular supply chains for emerging clean energy technologies, and decrease the demand for virgin materials,” the Power Division notes.

The Power Division additional observes that processes and purposes that middle re-usability complement the broader goals of the Biden administration. “Innovations that enable new or expanded Re-X supply chains can also engage communities and labor, advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA), and support the implementation of the White House Justice40 Initiative,” they clarify.

New Life For Previous Wind Generators

Rockwind focuses on mid-sized, standalone wind generators starting from 400 to 900 kilowatts. That’s peanuts in comparison with the multi-megawatt utility-scale wind generators of immediately, nevertheless it’s much more than the small wind class, which incorporates micro wind generators of 20 watts on as much as small wind generators within the 100-kilowatt class silo.

Apparently there are additionally sufficient mid-sized generators in circulation to help Rockwind’s refurbish-and-reuse enterprise mannequin.

“Hundreds of wind turbines are being decommissioned to make way for even larger wind turbines, but those wind turbines can be cost effectively refurbished and reused in distributed energy applications,” Rockwind notes.

Re-Utilizing Previous Wind Generators: The Satan Is In The Particulars

That sounds easy sufficient, however Rockwind emphasizes that high quality management is crucial. A distributed wind set up sometimes entails only one or two generators at a given website, usually in distant areas. That interprets into greater prices for servicing and upkeep. “Our goal, when selecting a decommissioned turbine, is to ensure we get the best value for our customers with a strong emphasis on minimal maintenance and a long operating life,” Rockwind explains.

When the corporate first launched, it imported decommissioned wind generators from Europe to the US Midwest for a makeover. Ranging in dimension from 600 kilowatts to 1 megawatt, these generators had been chosen primarily based on their 40-year design lifespan, which Rockwind describes as “built to aerospace quality.” They had been changed with bigger fashions after simply 20-25 years in service, leaving a decent quantity of lifespan in a brand new location.

The corporate’s present plans embrace refurbishing decommissioned wind generators from US wind farms as effectively. Both approach, a lot of the refurbishing course of entails changing the older drivetrain with new elements that replicate trendy supplies and expertise enhancements.

“We pay for the highest quality parts that have been shown to last longer and perform better,” Rockwell emphasizes.

Along with repainting the towers, the refurbishing work additionally consists of rebuilding the blades with forefront tape and stall strips. These further touches enhance the effectivity and lifespan of fiberglass blades past their efficiency when new, as described by Rockwind.

Many Paths To The Sustainable Wind Turbine Of The Future

Past the distributed wind area, the thought of remaking an older wind turbine right into a extra environment friendly energy producing station has additionally taken maintain amongst wind farm builders.

Some repowering initiatives contain re-using the wind turbine tower, however in others the whole turbine is changed. A 2019 repowering project in Wyoming, for instance, concerned changing 68 wind generators from the Nineties with simply 13 new, extra highly effective fashions. The consequence was a 60% enhance in output together with decrease upkeep prices.

Wind turbine expertise enhancements are additionally occurring so quick that some wind farm builders are partaking in a type of pre-repowering technique. The excessive profile Vineyard Wind offshore wind challenge in Massachusetts, for instance, was initially deliberate as an 84-turbine array. Earlier than building started, the developer switched to GE’s new Haliade-X offshore turbinestrimming the ultimate quantity all the way down to 62 generators.

As for different sustainability enhancements, the Power Division is focusing consideration on the extra environment friendly use and longer lifespan of supplies, along with improvements in turbine material recycling.

Wood turbine towers and turbine blades are additionally among the many new developments to hit the CleanTechnica radar.

In one other fascinating twist, the Swiss vitality storage agency Power Vault has launched the thought of incorporating recycled turbine blades in its gravity-based vitality storage system, with an help from the US department of the worldwide agency Enel Inexperienced Energy.

Earlier this yr, Enel prompt that the thought has come to fruit. In a press launch describing Power Vault’s new 18-megawatt vitality storage challenge in Texas, Enel famous that fiberglass from decommissioned wind generators can be utilized to strengthen the shifting weights deployed within the system.

I’ll test in on Enel to see if “can be” means “was actually,” so keep tuned for extra on that.

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Picture: A US agency is refurbishing, upgrading, and relocating older wind generators for re-use within the distributed vitality assets market, incomes it a slot within the Re-X Earlier than Recycling competitors of the US Department of Energy (courtesy of US DOE).