What do you do when your wind turbine is too old to use, and you have to wind up the facility and replace it with a new one? These huge structures are a brilliant way of harnessing wind energy and turning it into electricity. But they do not last forever.
Recent blades have been made to be recyclable, but the earlier generation of carbon fibre reinforced plastic is not so easy to repurpose.
So I was really excited to learn that now one of the Scottish windfarms is due for replacement, boffins are working on constructive ways to use the parts, aiming for ZeroWaste
In The Netherlands and Denmark, these massive pieces of engineering are already being turned into play parks and bike sheds.
In Scotland they are also considering skateboard ramps, glamping pods and wildlife hides
Very creative, and safe. How much more useful than the decommissioned Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station.
It's nice to see that people are finding ways to reuse/repurpose/recycle. :)
ReplyDeleteIt IS good that more people are waking up to these ideas
DeleteWith the shortage of housing for some people in many parts of the world maybe they could be homes instead of glamping pods.
ReplyDelete(Sizewell B is still going but Sizewell A sits there like a huge concrete white elephant)
YEARS ago I was staying at the Sizxewell Conference Centre, and there wasd a petition going round about the proposed nudist beach. I got very annoyed and said they really ought to petition against the nuclear power station instead.
DeleteThe scale of these things always takes me aback
ReplyDeleteI know - they look tiny on the horizon, but when you get up close...
DeleteWhat an interesting discovery archeologists will have in a 1000 years time! Will wind power still be around or will they struggle to figure out the original purpose of these parts? Perhaps the information will all be in the "Cloud".
ReplyDelete