Video follows.
Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI) of Phoenix, Maryland, USA (acting as Explosives Design and Performance Subcontractor to Main Demolition Contractor, Dallas Demolition of Houston, Texas who was working for RiverCap Ventures of Rocky River, Ohio, the General Demolition Contractor) performs the successful explosives felling of 90, Mitsubishi 1000A Wind Turbines in New Mexico.
No effort was made to preserve foundations or other wind farm infrastructure. CDI’s crew felled the 90 Units in two (2) mobilizations to the site, permitting the Wind Farm Owner to complete salvage of blades and drive-train elements from some of the wind turbines to provide replacement parts for similar Units they operate at other wind farm locations. The Units were safely felled, exactly per plan, and ahead of schedule.
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They might only last 25 years, 10 for the blades, generate way less than nameplate capacity, and cost a pile, but at least they are fun to watch being destroyed.
What a glorious sight!
Unfortunately, Biden’s “30 x 30” Executive Order (Federal government to control 30% of all US land and ocean rights by 2030) is a land/ocean grab to greatly restrict future oil/gas/coal exploration and farms/ranches/fishing, and to build insanely unreliable massive wind/solar farms on these federal lands and oceans….
BTW, the true goal is 50 x 50 (Federal government to control 50% of all US land and ocean rights by 2050)—oh goody…
Ironically, the name of this Biden EO is “America The Beautiful”….
More please!!!
Blades aren’t salvageable. They are a balanced set, and can’t be interchanged. Damage to one blade causes the whole set to be scrapped.
Anyone with a boat or light aicraft knows that prop blades wear out. As do airframe wings, without inspection and repair. WInd turbine blades combine the frailties of air props and of aircraft lift surfaces. Since they are installed for the service life of the turbine, they are not salvageble by the time they are removed — even the removal process can completely destroy them.
Some older, shorter, less efficient designs use aluminum (brit: insert superfluous i to taste) but for these, the aluminum skin and frame is recycled as scrap. They are still worn out and too small to be reused on a modern 160 or 210 foot (eu: divide by whatever for meters) blade turbines.
But fear not: Carbon fiber and resin blades will burn just as well as coal in a modern furnace, so they won’t go completely to waste.
These were old 1KW units. Newer ones are rated at 6 and 10 kw. 210 ft. blades used on 10kw turbines are at the limit of what can be transported by road. Both sorts use specialized tractor trailer equipment and up to 15 vehicle teams to transport a set to a site. I’ve been on a couple trips for 160 ft. blade sets — returned to manufacturer for failed acceptance inspection.
Thanks d_k.
A report from the front.
I wonder if the blades couldn’t be chopped up and used to help fire cement kilns.
Rich,
Actually, carbon fiber can be burned. Other composites not so much, resins will burn off but what is left is mostly silica. As for aluminum components, a completely renewable source of intense heat is the thermite reaction — in this case a simple mixture of iron oxide (rust) and aluminum, once ignited (perhaps by a punctured lithium battery?) renders levels of heat that might be quite useful in ceramics, so long as one doesn’t mind building a new plant afterwards.
It’s a good start.
Come on people, what’s wrong with wind turbine energy, it can be expected for 2.1 days in every 7 on average depending on the wind blowing.
Of course what days are difficult to predict.
sarc.
A significant impact of blasting techniques is the release of toxic carbon monoxide CO, and the non-toxic gas carbon dioxide CO2, which are the products of the final explosive transformation of explosives (Mainiero, Harris, & Rowland, 2007).
Anthony forgot to mention that the modern explosives to blow these eyesores up are all made from fossil fuels.
That video was just soooooo satisfying. Loved every second of it.
Six down and another million to go .
We should realize that this is just the beginning. Those turbines being blown up represent the small number that existed 20 years ago. The numbers have been growing at an exponential rate since then. The demolitions will therefore start growing at an exponential rate. At some point this will be noticed by even the dullest climate alarmist. Renewables eh?
Yes, good point Vincent.
The pillars are steel. A bonanza for scrap dealers.
“The demolitions will therefore start growing”
But then, Biden will stop the demolition and pay to keep ’em. Never thought I’d live to see fully-fledged Dementia Government.
Salvage blades? They will be junk! Look at them crumple as they hit the ground and shatter.
Anyway, how old were these turbines, and why were they no longer viable? (if they ever were of course)
see cirby’s comment in this thread. I started to write, but cirby’s already started the gist of it, and other’s have filled in.
Is this the one in Guadalupe county? IF so its only been running since 2006.
https://www.leewardenergy.com/projects/allegheny-ridge-wind-farm-17/
Thats only 15 years old.
I cant find any more references to these turbines in new mexico so if they are only 15 years old, thats shocking.
Matthew, But not unexpected. These were early models, small compared to modern capacity, and little had been done to establish service life when they were designed.
Unlike fossil fuel plants, which are able to be upgraded and use well-understood technology, these things are one-use, not modular, and can’t be restored or upgraded. Maintenace capability is limited.
Don’t expect more than 25 years of service from any of these things, or from PV solar. If they aren’t replacing them faster than they are building new ones, they are already losing ground. Part of the con is to deny (or ignore) that they’ve got as big a “carbon footprint” as anything they’ve been proposed to replace.
“Part of the con is to deny (or ignore) that they’ve got as big a “carbon footprint” as anything they’ve been proposed to replace.” let me fix that for you: Part of the con is they
deny (or ignore)know that they’ve got as bigger a “carbon footprint” as anything they’ve been proposed to replace.Mal, Yup. There may be a scientific definition of carbon footprint. I’ve not heard of a reliable one. Mostly in the eye of the beholder, so I’m pretty confident of the claim.
As to my wording, I have a guilty pleasure in turning around accusations of denial and ignorance on this general topic. You are correct, and I shouldn’t indulge when it interferes with my meaning.
Thanks!
hot damn! best thing Ive seen in ages!!
woulda been nice to see entire rows of em fall one by one
hmm hydryaulic fluids etc neatly drained n recycled prior?
or not;-)
way they landed not many blades etc would be useable
hooray!!
What a beautiful sight. But where are the activists? If you try to fell a tree they are on it like flies, climbing onto them to prevent you doing your thing. Where are they here? Not one in view. Do they not care enough? Shame on them!
Somebody is missing a good money-making opportunity; a Save the Wind Turbine advocacy group. Send the usual suspects a blurb saying, with enough funding, the turbines could be reconditioned and reused, once again helping us win our battle against fossil fuels. Send your donations to….
Pay a few idiots to block the demolition – maybe someone could perch on a blade – and get a lot of free press.
It is not said why they were demolished but I hazard a guess that the subsidies dried up and that therefore running the farm with the maintenance involved was not economical anymore, with destruction the cheaper option.
If they were worth putting up then why not keep using them? they seem okay.
Well most wind farm sites in Europe are reused for larger turbines and the removed equipment is mostly sent to be used again in other parts of the world.
This is just another case of the USA having lower standards than other parts of the world.
‘Most’? – So what about all that concrete?
According to Wind Europe (“The Voice of the Wind Industry in Europe”)
although theoretically between 85% and 90% of a wind turbines total mass can be recycled to date the number of turbines being recycled has been quite low.
Moreover the recycling of turbine blades is difficult because of the complex composite materials they are made from. They estimate that 14,000 turbine blades could be decommissioned in Europe by 2023.
So yet again Griff you are wrong.
“So yet again Griff you are wrong.” Question has he ever been right?
No.
Ah no a lot of these are imported from Europe. Is Europe selling us junk?
Have you ever BEEN in Europe Griff?
How about paying a visit or three to the Europe I actuallydrive around on a daily basis!
Ugh. Do we have to? I’m in UK as is Griff (I believe). According to the latest EU mandates (sung by some drug taking, crossdressing Italian morons), the UK no longer appears to be in Europe.
“The removed equipment is mostly sent to be used again in other parts of the world.”
What a naked racism.
You should get used to this, Griff. More and more turbines will be coming down as the subsidies run out.
Does anyone know if this is the site where the demolition occurred? Aragonne Wind – Leeward Energy If so, it looks like GE was selected to “repower” this wind farm with new turbines –GE to Repower Leeward’s Aragonne Wind Project in New Mexico (steelguru.com) . If this is the correct location, what this also shows is that this windfarm became operational in 2006 meaning these wind turbines lasted at best 15 years. Yet, the lunacy continues with new turbines being installed that will also likely last 15 maybe 20 years.
This has to be the site where the turbines were demolished. If so, it’s probable that the concrete foundations will be removed and replaced with ones capable of handling larger turbines. Doing this is probably a good investment under the not unreasonable assumption that the harvesting of green energy subsidies will grow considerably under the current regime.
Will take a lot of explosives and heavy machinery to remove all that material – each base weighs over 2,000,000 pounds consisting of steel rebar and concrete.
They keep saying we need renewable energy because coal is finite … But its estimated we have 200 years of coal available … So is there enough cobalt available to build 10 generations of wind turbines (20 year life) … Not very “renewable” if you run out of materials to build them …
But-but-but, we only have 20 years of windmills left – apparently. AGW is causing the wind to drop. (prove me wrong, GP).
Greatvideo – sort of an environmental Zabriski Point
Warms my heart to see this..!! Should become a World Wide thing IMO.
Wind turbines RUN ON SUBSIDIES period – & require massive and VERY Expensive Back up when they do not generate useful amounts of electrical power…which is often.
All they do is kill wildlife, destroy natural habitat and scenery.
Industrial wind is the Biggest CON Job ever.
BLOW EM ALL UP..!!
From the above article: “. . . permitting the Wind Farm Owner to complete salvage of blades and drive-train elements from some of the wind turbines to provide replacement parts for similar Units they operate at other wind farm locations.”
WTF? Anyone believe that turbine blades and “drive train elements” would be reliable replacement part after surviving impact forces associate with an approximately ~ 35 m (115 foot) average fall height?
As someone put it a long time ago, “a fool is born every minute” this site has a few of them that comment far to often.
Exactly . . . and many of these are fond of posting off-topic.
. . . And most of those resort to ad hominem comments.
Has anyone got a video of a bulldozer recycling a solar farm?
After pushing the useless grant generators into a heap of broken glass and metal frames. I am sure they will be ideal spare parts for other solar farms.
Doesn’t look like there is much to be salvaged after these drops. But what a great job to have!
My wife and I are both rocket propulsion specialists, and both freely admit that it’s just a socially acceptable outlet for pyromania.