Defunct wind turbine blades give industry a waste problem 

Almost 100 giant turbine blades from Scotland’s first wind farm are being sent into storage while the industry battles to solve major problems over their recycling.

Hagshaw Hill, near Douglas in South Lanarkshire, which opened 28 years ago, is being “repowered” as the first generation of turbines is dismantled, throwing more than 80 blades on to the scrapheap.

ScottishPower Renewables plans to replace them with larger turbines after government permission was granted for a 14-turbine wind farm.

The new turbines will have a ground-to-blade tip height of 200 metres, almost four times the size of the previous towers.

Turbine blades are difficult to recycle and campaigners fear many may already have ended up in landfill. Scottish ministers have not imposed a ban them being dumped.

The Scottish government confirmed that “a landfill ban on turbine blades was not in effect in Scotland, or anywhere else in the UK”. Only Austria, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands have agreed to such a ban.

The fibres of glass or carbon commonly used in the blades’ construction make them hard to recycle. They are also very robust, having been built to withstand harsh weather.

It means the number being recycled has been relatively low and finding a sustainable way to dispose of them has become a major headache for the industry.

The website of ESS Utility, a waste consultancy, says that while power produced by wind farms may be environmentally friendly, the disposal of blades is not and when their time is up their final destination can be turbine blade graveyards – “essentially landfill”.

ScottishPower Renewables and SSE Renewables – which operate 22 and 18 onshore wind farms farms respectively – would not confirm if they had sent redundant turbine blades to landfill sites in the past.

A representative of ScottishPower Renewables said: “The turbines from Hagshaw Hill will be going into our own storage just now whilst we work to identify how the materials can be repurposed.

“Currently, some of the components and materials can be reconditioned, reused, used for research and training, whilst others can be recycled and repurposed in many other innovative ways.

“We’re also part of the Coalition for Wind Industry looking at how we collaboratively move towards a more circular approach for replacing onshore and offshore wind components.”

As of April this year, there were more than 4,000 turbines operating in Scotland and, as many of the first tranche are coming to the end of their 25-year life span, it means there will be about 5,500 redundant blades for the industry to contend with by 2050.

Scotland Against Spin, a campaign group, says that while 85 per cent of wind turbines can be recycled – including the steel towers and components in the gearing and generator – the blades, each weighing around eight tonnes, are an entirely different matter.

Aileen Jackson, a spokeswoman for the group, said: “The point, of course, is that the environmental impact of non-recyclable blades should have been dealt with long before it arrived at the stage where decommissioning is now taking place.

“The Scottish government had plenty of time to deal with it but didn’t bother and it has now become a major concern. It seems extraordinary that Scottish government policy is to at least double onshore turbines over the next 20 years and yet there is no clear provision for recycling.”

SSE Renewables said they were focused on finding solutions to avoid redundant blades being sent to landfill.

A representative said: “The vast majority of SSE Renewables’ portfolio was constructed after 2010, so we have no plans for decommissioning at scale until after 2035 at the earliest.

“We are taking action now to establish commercial, scalable solutions for waste at the end of a wind farm’s operational life so that we can prevent any turbine blades being sent to landfill.”

Zero Scotland, the not-for-profit environmental group funded by the Scottish government, says that by 2050, 5,500 turbines will be decommissioned based on sites that were planned or operational in 2020.

Their forecast includes more than 60,000 tonnes of fibreglass and 90,000 tonnes of resin and balsa which are landfilled.

The Scottish government said: “We are committed to helping develop a more circular economy as part of the journey to net zero, and to supporting businesses working across a wide range of industries to reduce demand for raw material while increasing opportunities to reuse, repair and recycle.

“Whilst it is acknowledged that the first generation of wind turbines developed globally can be more difficult to recycle, the renewables sector is deploying increasingly innovative designs, processes and decommissioning approaches to move towards a more circular model.”