What survives 20 years of wind cannot be melted down
A wind turbine blade is built from a composite material, glass fibres bonded inside a hardened resin, chosen because it can bend in a storm for 20 years without cracking. That same strength means a landfill cannot break it down, and a recycling plant cannot simply melt it and pour a new shape. Between 80% and 90% of a blade weight is this composite, and 60% to 70% of the composite is the reinforcing fibre itself, according to a National Renewable Energy Laboratory study. According to a Department of Energy count from July 2022, more than 210,000 blades were already spinning across 72,130 turbines nationally, and the same laboratory projects 235,000 blades will be retired nationally by 2050.
The early replacement figure, 0.224 million tons, is not stated directly by the source. It is a subtraction performed for this article, the 3.3 million ton total the source states minus the 2.2 million ton end of life figure and the 0.876 million ton manufacturing scrap figure, both stated directly by the source.
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| Blades retired, on schedule | 2.2 |
| Manufacturing, scrap | 0.876 |
| Blades replaced, early | 0.224 |
Retiring those blades on the usual 20 year schedule will add up to 2.2 million metric tons of material by 2050. Add manufacturing scrap and blades pulled early, before a plant upgrade or a broken part retires them ahead of schedule, and the total blade material needing disposal nationally reaches about 3.3 million metric tons.
The pace is about to triple
Retirements are not steady. The laboratory projects 3,000 to 9,000 blades a year coming down nationally through the mid 2020s, rising to 10,000 to 20,000 blades a year by 2040, as the turbines built during the wind expansion of the 2000s and 2010s all turn 20 years old within a few years of each other.
Both ranges come from the same national retirement model, which assumes each blade lasts about 20 years in service. Only 2 rows are used because only 2 periods are modelled in the source. The ratio between them, the pace roughly tripling, is itself the finding this chart exists to show.
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| Today, roughly 2021 to 2026 | 3,000 to 9,000 blades a year |
| By 2040 | 10,000 to 20,000 blades a year |
Landfilling still beats recycling on price
Getting a blade off a turbine and into the ground costs money at every step, and the laboratory priced each one. Before it can be trucked away, a blade is either cut into segments up to 30 metres long, at about 27.56 dollars a metric ton, or ground into shreds, pieces 1 to 3 centimetres across, at about 99.21 dollars a metric ton, a step some recycling routes require before they can accept it. A landfill then charges a tip fee, the price it charges to accept a load of waste, averaging 60.63 dollars a metric ton nationally for shredded material. Shredding a blade to prepare it for recycling can cost more than a landfill charges just to bury it in segments, which is part of why landfilling remains the default.
This is the national average landfill fee for shredded material. Texas, which holds the most turbine blades of any state, charges a different, volume based fee instead, about 19 dollars a cubic metre, not shown here because it is not measured in tons.
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| Cut into, segments | 27.56 |
| Ground into, shreds | 99.21 |
| Landfill tip fee, shredded material | 60.63 |
The recyclers that exist are still small
A handful of plants recycle blades today, and each one is rated to handle far fewer blades a year than the country is projected to retire. Veolia, working with GE Renewable Energy, runs a grinding plant in Louisiana, Missouri, rated to handle 3,000 blades a year, and had mechanically recycled over 100 blades by fall 2020. Carbon Rivers, based in Knoxville, Tennessee, used about 2.4 million dollars from the Department of Energy to develop pyrolysis, heating the composite with no oxygen present to recover glass fibre at 99.9% purity, and had processed over 100 tons of blade material by September 2022.
WETO's investment in this emerging technology will create jobs while dramatically improving turbine recycling at a scale that will transform the renewable energy industry.
Mike Derby, wind technology program manager at the Department of Energy Wind Energy Technologies Office. Source 3.
Its spinoff, Windfall Inc, is aiming for a Tennessee plant that recycles 5,000 blades a year. A third plant, run by REGEN Fiber in Fairfax, Iowa, opened in June 2024 and uses no heat and no chemicals at all.
Our process recycles 100% of the wind turbine blade, creating reinforcement fibers and additives that enhance durability.
Jeff Woods, director of business development at Travero, the company behind REGEN Fiber. Source 4.
Even added together, the largest stated capacities available today, 3,000 blades a year at one plant and a 5,000 blade a year target at another, are a fraction of the 20,000 blades a year the laboratory expects to come down annually by 2040.