This is your warning

All of the above. There's an awful lot of posturing that often needs attribution and recognition.

 

I figured you might have been aware of the story, although I'm sorry to hear that it hits a little too close to home for you. Such a horrible tragedy to be inflicted on everyone involved.

 

Wind turbine blades are 100% recyclable. It's cheaper and easier to toss them in a landfill.
There are companies that recycle the composites, there are not enough of them nor are they where they need to be to be a cost effective disposal alternative.
Until we-the-people demand that disposal costs be part of the generation costs, landfills will continue to be the means of disposal.

 

Primarily/historically a lightweight wood like balsa or basswood and fiberglass although there are some using a percentage of carbon fiber either as a structural component or sandwiched with(in) the fiberglass.

The fibers in fiberglass can be made from silica/glass, aramid (Kevlar is a brand name), carbon or even from basalt, also possibly quartz. (recycling gets complicated)
Then there are the polyester and /or epoxy resins used to bond the lightweight fibers.

Sometimes blades get replaced because end-of-life, sometimes because a new design is (hopefully) cost effective,

 

They get "braked" for maintenance as well. There are usually three brakes, two for the blades, each blade having a b rake on its tip and then a hydraulic brake very much like the disc brakes in your car near the motor. I suppose the pitch mechanism on the blades could be considered a sort of brake as well. There's another brake on the mechanism that keeps the head unit pointed into the wind (on designs that point into the wind).
Wind generators require so much maintenance it's not surprising their operating costs are so high, and they are idled so often.

The University across the street had one that was constantly broken. They finally tore it down. They even ripped the concrete base out of the ground. Apparently it lost so much money they aren't considering replacing it at all. Which is kinda sad. It was a pretty good spot for a wind turbine and it was handy to look at (when it was working, which wasn't often) to know which way the wind was blowing.

 

In reality, everything industrial has accidents, not just nuclear. Only difference is, nuclear gets the attention of the media whereas other industrial accidents don't for the most part. Like the huge chemical plant fire in Illinois a couple weeks ago. Garnered a one page article, one time and that was it.

 

My philosophy about alternative electrical generation is this... If the sun don't shine or the wind don't blow, no power is produced. Simple as that.

People are under the false assumption that alternative energy can replace nuclear, NG and coal fired base load generation. It cannot. It can only supplement base load generation, never replace it, as 'green' as it is. Not really green at all.

 

Whether you agree with me or not is your prerogative but, I find solar array installations on crop lands to be a travesty as well as the term 'Solar Farm'. They (solar people) call them farms to placate the naysayers. They aren't farms at all. They are industrial installations that take productive farmland out of the food chain and nothing more and the reason why landowners are positive about them is, they make more revenue per acre than with row cropping. It's all about revenue made and nothing else. Went through that here with a proposed 'solar farm' and I would not sign on so they went elsewhere to pander their supposed green deal. Of course it didn't make adjacent landholders happy because they were only looking at revenue, not overall what it would do to not only the land, but local food production.

Where I'm at is the most productive farm ground in Michigan, black sandy loam. It don't need to be taken out of production far as I'm concerned. One thing these solar people never talk about is, what happens when the panels reach the end of their useful life? Who is responsible for remediation and disposal (remember panels are considered hazardous waste and must be disposed of properly). They never talk about that aspect. Why? Because the fine print says the landowner is responsible. Not for me and neither are windmills. I sure don't want to listen to the whoosh whoosh all the time and there is a recycling issue with them too.

 

corncob i agree with solar farms SHOULD NOT be put on usable or productive land. What short sighted thinking, population is growing. Bothers me that we are paying for this through govt subsidies

 

Yes Fukushima in 2011. Nuclear plants in geographical areas that are prone to volcanoes earthquakes and Tsunamis.. What could go wrong

 

Respect should be extended to all countries, as FHC has global members.

 

Unitil announced a 65-100% increase in electric costs. And just as those that got on a plan and thought their rates were locked in - nope, those are rising too. I don't have Unitil, but I'm sure my supplier will raise costs shortly.