mrt
By Sana Ameer, Staff writer

13 September 2023
 

WTX city becomes dumping ground for used wind turbine blades

Aerial view of property used in West Texas for storing parts for large wind turbines used for collecting wind energy.
Grandriver/Getty Images

A West Texas town has become a landfill for thousands of large old wind turbine blades.

It started in 2017 when a stack of blades was placed in the town of Sweetwater, about 45 minutes from Abilene. Each blade is between 150 and 200 feet in length and longer than the wing of an airplane, cut into thirds and stacked haphazardly on top of and next to its counterparts.

Six years later, the blades take up more than 30 acres on the west side of town. Another wind turbine graveyard in the south of town takes up about 10 acres.

Global Fiberglass Solutions is behind the mess, buying dead turbine blades from energy companies and depositing 80% of them in Sweetwater. The company hopes to shred the blades and use them in other industries, from railroads to flooring. But GFS has struggled to secure funding to purchase the requisite equipment to do this, resulting in the blades lying idle in West Texas.

Several of the nearly 11,000 residents who call Sweetwater home complain the stacks of blades pose a threat to children playing nearby, bold enough to explore the makeshift maze. Others say stagnant pools of water inside the blades provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes, while rattlesnakes find comfort under the shadows the tall piles cast.

Outsiders could argue the wind turbine blade is one of the unofficial symbols of Sweetwater, since the surrounding county produces more wind energy than almost anywhere else on the planet. Since the late-1990s, the town’s wind energy industry has fueled the local economy with turbine-related jobs and a boom for landowners. Even the welcome sign greeting drivers into the town is printed on a wind turbine blade.

As environmentally-friendly wind energy is, decommissioned wind turbine blades are not. Burning a wind turbine blade emits pollutants. A diamond-encrusted industrial saw is allegedly needed to cut through the fiberglass that makes up a wind turbine blade. If left alone, the blade’s fiber-enforced plastic will never break down.