Touring Texan Turbine Graveyards Becomes Latest Green Tourism Venture

A while back, wind industry spinners reckoned tourists would flock to see a few of these whirling wonders in action, now they’re flocking to their graveyards. Texans now have the opportunity to visit the growing piles of toxic turbine blades and other junk left over after these things give up the ghost.

James Morrow and Ron Kendall have put together a video tourist brochure, propounding the latest in ‘green’ tourism.

‘Turbine graveyards’ sprawled across Texas
YouTube
James Morrow and Ron Kendall
6 October 2023

Independent journalist Ron Kendall Jr warns of “turbine graveyards” which have been popping up over the US state of Texas as turbine blades reach their useable life.

Texas is home to more than 15,000 wind turbines and has been dubbed a “clean energy powerhouse”.

In a documentary produced by Yucca Films, Mr Kendall Jr investigates the lifespan of the turbines and where they go once used.

“Once they reach their usable life we are seeing more of these, I like to call them turbine graveyards, popping up throughout the state, some to the scale of over 20 to 40 acres of maybe ten tall stacked up,” he told Sky News host James Morrow.

“It doesn’t seem like there was much thought into the end of life for a lot of these renewable energy sources.”

Mr Kendall Jr added many blades are being replaced within two years on some of the newer facilities.

Transcript

James Morrow: Now, Texas has been dubbed a clean energy powerhouse with wind energy being a big part of the state’s grid. Texas is home to more than 15,000 wind turbines. That is only set to grow as the Biden administration pushes more and more green policies. But as we know, there are challenges when it comes to this sort of technology, including their own negative impacts on the environment. That’s one of the big questions explored by Ron Kendall Jr. from Yucca Films, who’s created a documentary about the lifespan of wind turbines and where they go once they’ve been all used up. Here’s a little bit.

Ron Kendall: These are all expired blades that have reached their usable life and have come here to die. A lot of claims of recycling these blades, but we’re not seeing any of it. These have been here for years and you can see, these are some of the in sections of the blades and they’ve been cut in half. Some of them been cut in half to maybe increase stacking efficiency. Some out there have just been kind of chopped up and they’re really decaying.

James Morrow: I’m pleased to be joined now by independent journalist, filmmaker and wildlife specialist Ron Kendall Jr. Ron, thanks so much for coming to talk about this here. As we saw in this clip, these blades are being held at a facility in Texas. What happens? Is this just normally what happens to wind farms or windmills when they’ve reached the end of their useful life?

Ron Kendall: Yeah, James, thanks for having me. This is becoming an increasing problem that we’re seeing throughout the state of Texas, and a lot of the footage that we were collecting recently and what you’re viewing on the screen now are blades from a facility just outside of Sweetwater, Texas. This farm has been in operation for about 10 years and those blades have reached their usable life. They’re made 100% out of fibreglass and they have some other internal components, but mainly fibreglass and there’s no real process or mechanism to recycle these blades, and so once they reach their usable life, we’re seeing more of these, I like to call them turbine graveyards, popping up throughout the state, some to the scale of over 20 to 40 acres of just maybe 10 tall stacked up, so doesn’t seem like there was much thought into the end of life of a lot of these renewable energy sources.

James Morrow: What you’re saying here is then these blades, what? They’re no more than 10 years old and they’re already headed for the junkyard, is that correct?

Ron Kendall: That is correct. We’ve been monitoring a lot of the newer facilities as well, and I’ve found it very interesting. We’re seeing a lot of turbines and I don’t understand the cause and I don’t have a good grasp on this yet, but a lot of blades are being replaced within two years now, what we’re seeing on some of the newer facilities.

James Morrow: It seems to me then, we’re sold in Australia, this whole idea that wind farms are this completely clean green energy, and yet we see here, I don’t know if you’ve got the same problem in Texas, that you get bird life kills, you get the whole cost of making the windmills, of course, which are big industrial sorts of things as well, and now you’ve got this whole waste problem here. Are the producers, are the people who put up these wind farms, they sell it as a green technology, zero waste, and all of that, are these sorts of factors factored in in Texas when people are trying to sell people on the glories of wind farms and the new green technology?

Ron Kendall: Well, I think it’s still a new enough technology that there’s no real concern of the end of life. We’re just entering into that phase of, yeah, what happens once these have reached their usable life? What happens when the blades have expired and then what happens when the entire structure has reached its full usable life as well? Set aside the carbon cost of developing these farms and building them, putting the structures up, the wildlife cost. We really have to look at who is going to foot the bill for remediating all these sites and bringing these turbines down and restoring.

I work on ranches. I work with protecting native wildlife throughout the state of Texas and who will foot the bill at the complete end of usable life for these wind turbines? I don’t think at this point, that’s really been figured out or discussed much yet. I think you can equate it to oil and gas has very strict guidelines and there’s a lot of ridicule and they’re under a lens and highly monitored when they shut in wells, and I think there has to be a standard put in place to say, at the end of life here, who’s going to cover and remediate all these massive farms that we’re seeing growing throughout the state and around the world?

James Morrow: Ron, that’s a great warning for Australia from Texas. Thank you so much. Filmmaker Ron Kendall Jr.
YouTube

Episode 1 is available here but audio quality is poor – although subitiles are available.