German wind farm
Optimism – or is it wishful thinking? – may not be unusual among so-called greens, but merely hoping for solutions after creating the problems doesn’t look like much of a strategy.
Germany has more than 28,000 wind turbines — but many are old and by 2023 more than a third must be decommissioned. Disposing of them is a huge environmental problem.
Expert Jan Tessmer (coordinator on wind energy research at the German Aerospace Center (DLR)) tells DW he’s optimistic.
DW: Dr Tessmer, disposing of wind turbines is extremely difficult. Their concrete bases go as deep as 30 meters into the ground, and are hard to fully remove, while the rotor blades contain glass and carbon fibers — they give off dust and toxic gases so burning them isn’t an option. Some environmentalists say this problem is being swept under the carpet, what do you think?
Jan Tessmer: I actually think everything is relative. Of course it is an issue and of course you don’t get anything for free, but you always have to see it in relation, what are the values you get out of the wind turbine and I think yes, some efforts have to be made to efficiently, and also without environmental damage, get turbines recycled or out of the ground.
There are huge concrete foundations that have to be gotten out but I don’t see there being any principal problem that could not be overcome. It will probably be a challenge for technology. It will really be an issue over the next years and decades probably to get old turbines off the field, so I expect industry will find technologies to cope with it.
Is the difficulty in disposing of wind turbines hurting wind energy’s reputation as a green power source?
Yes, sure. I actually think it is important that we find good technologies for recycling, because wind turbines are pioneers in green energy technologies, and it would be a pity if we also cannot find green and environmentally-friendly technologies for recycling them. But as I said, I think it’s only a matter of time to develop them and I’m quite confident that the image of wind turbines can be kept as a green technology.
Continued here.
via Tallbloke’s Talkshop
July 16, 2018 at 08:37AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 