On Friday, The Minnesota Star Tribune posted an article highlighting one of the problems with wind energy–turbine blades are not biodegradable, and they are big!
The article reports:
GRAND MEADOW, MINN. – Darcy Richardson had big plans for a garden patio enveloped by flowers in her backyard in this little community south of Rochester.
She gave up once the blades arrived.
Trucks dropped off more than 100 fiberglass turbine blades on the empty lot next door in 2020, haphazardly stacked to the edge of Richardson’s property. Almost four years later, the mountain of old wind parts — which is visible on Google Earth — is still there.
Some blades are cracked and stained. Locals say they draw feral cats and foxes and are a safety risk because kids climb on the junk.
They’re also ugly, ruining Richardson’s view, hurting property values and attracting the curiosity of seemingly everyone who drives the highway into town.
“After six months we were like ‘C’mon guys, what’s going on,’” said Richardson, once a master gardener. “After a year we were like ‘Seriously, this sucks.’”
What happened in Grand Meadow is more than merely a local mess. It reflects tensions over the boom of wind energy in southern Minnesota during a shift away from fossil fuels, the problem of recycling green infrastructure, small town political infighting and government and corporate bureaucracy.
The article concludes:
Grand Meadow is looking into whether it can fine TMT. The city asked for help from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, with no luck. Christian is now trying the PUC, where utility regulators plan to weigh in next month after taking public comments on whether the board can or should intervene.
Xcel Energy now owns the wind farm, but the company says it can’t move the blades because it doesn’t own them and described the situation as “isolated.” Xcel is still sensitive to the issue because the blade junk is not exactly building goodwill in a wind-rich area.
Annette Olson co-owns Olson Tree Services, a business adjacent to the blade pile, and said, like several others, she is not opposed to renewable power. But “it’s frustrating when they talk about all the things we need to do to help our environment, but yet they fail to do their part,” she said.
Xcel spokesman Theo Keith said the company is open to including new protections in blade recycling contracts to protect host communities. NextEra declined to comment. Siemens Gamesa said it has a confidential agreement with RiverCap to remove the blades from Grand Meadow.
Donahue, at Canvus, said their lease expires by the end of the year so the blades will be moved soon. But the Richardson family living next to the junk pile, and others, are skeptical.
Darcy Richardson said she sometimes tries to imagine the wind blades as snow piles. The family said they once would have hosted a wedding in the yard, but not anymore. She has a smaller deck close to her house with a small statue of a farmhouse windmill amid black-eyed Susans. It’s the more idyllic vision of renewable energy.
Richardson asked the PUC to consider “what would you do if it was in your backyard?”
Jim had another message: “Don’t mess with my wife’s flowers.”
There are a lot of people who make large political donations making a lot of money from ‘green energy.’ Meanwhile, there are a lot or ordinary people being negatively impacted by promoting ‘green energy’ solutions that have not been completely thought out.
