Global team explores reuse of wind turbine blades

Wind energy technology has grown rapidly, worldwide, over the past 15 years. Given the approximate 20- to 25-year useful life of the non-biodegradable rotor blades in current wind turbines, many will need to be replaced in the near future. Researchers in the US, the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland are collaborating on a blade reuse project, developing a sustainable approach that benefits local communities and sets a new course for the wind energy industry that replaces the unsustainable disposal methods of landfilling and incineration. The project will explore the blades’ potential reuse in architectural and engineering structures. Such methods can have a positive effect on air quality and water quality, decreasing a major source of non-biodegradable waste. 

Called RE-WIND, the project is funded under the US-Ireland Tripartite Research Program (Dublin, Ireland). Team members span the disciplines of engineering, architecture, geography, sociology and political science. Project leaders and participating schools are Lawrence Bank, adjunct professor at the Grove School of Engineering at City College of New York; Russell Gentry, professor of architecture and civil engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology; Paul Leahy, lecturer in wind energy engineering at University College Cork; and Jian Fei Chen, professor of civil and structural engineering at Queen’s University Belfast.

Bank says the research will provide valuable information about wind energy not only to energy and waste-management policymakers, wind energy company executives and wind turbine manufacturers and installers but also to concerned community members: “The methodology we create in this research could be applicable to other large manufacturing industries,” adds Bank. 

Ireland is the testing ground because it offers great geographical/social contrast — from coastal to mountainous, with urban, suburban and rural communities — in a relatively compact space. At the recent project kickoff meeting in Cork, advisory board member Jeffrey Russell of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (US) conducted a master class in project leadership to address the unique challenges of managing a globally distributed team. Other advisory board members in attendance were John Blaho, director for industrial/academic research at City University of New York; and Nathan Post, lead engineer at WindESCo (Boston, MA, US), a technology company specializing in wind energy.

“Wind power is an increasingly important renewable energy source,” says Bank. “If we can find a socially acceptable reuse and recycling method for the non-biodegradable materials in wind turbine blades, we can make a significant contribution to its development.”