Where to dispose of piles of old wind turbine blades? Coal mines.

Wind farm operators in Wyoming and across the nation can now bury decommissioned wind turbine blades and other materials at surface coal mines in the state — a solution of mutual benefit to both industries, and especially local landfills, state officials say.

The federal Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation and Enforcement on Monday issued a final rule approving “the repurposing of inert, decommissioned wind turbine blades and towers” at surface coal mines in the state. The rule helps address an ongoing concern that turbine blades — which are frequently replaced with new ones — take up too much space at local landfills.

While those landfills typically earn fees to take on the materials, many worry the scores of wind fins and discarded towers might prematurely push landfills to their limits. A single blade would block two-way traffic if deposited on a street in downtown Casper.

“Repurposing these blades and towers as backfill as part of a reclamation plan was a novel answer for both the coal industry that needed backfill to accelerate final reclamation and for the wind industry that needed disposal answers,” former Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality Land Quality Division Administrator Kyle Wendtland, who led the state’s rulemaking effort before moving on to the Wyoming Energy Authority, said in a prepared statement.

Simply put, surface coal mines in Wyoming have much bigger holes to fill than the average municipal landfill. 

A typical coal mine in the southern Powder River Basin, for example, digs hundreds of feet down before it reaches coal, and those coal seams can be 50 feet thick. With the coal removed, there are big holes to fill and plenty of room for non-toxic materials, rule proponents say. The mining region is home to the biggest earth-moving industries in the world when it comes to digging and refilling holes — a prime opportunity to dispose of industrial waste such as wind turbine blades.

The coal mines are already permitted to bury some of their own inert industrial waste on-site, and they can take on more, according to state and federal regulators. When a tornado struck the nearby mining town of Wright in 2005, mines won quick approval from state regulators to bury debris from the devastation.

“Options to dispose of blades and towers are limited,” Wyoming DEQ Solid and Hazardous Waste Division Administrator Suzanne Engels, said in a prepared statement. “Landfilling the retired blades and towers is unsustainable due to land limitations that are needed for communities’ waste.”

Stockpiling decommissioned blades, as a proposed alternative by some in the industry, “is an eyesore and problematic for the environment,” Engels added.

Burying wind blades and other permitted wind energy materials can benefit coal mines by helping to speed up the reclamation process of backfilling pits, Wendtland said. Mines are also allowed to charge a fee, with 25% of the receipts sent to the state. There are no parameters around what coal mines might charge for disposal, he added.

“Not only can we handle Wyoming’s waste stream off of wind, we can handle a national level waste stream off of wind and do it responsibly,” Wendtland said.

The Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation and Enforcement, which has federal oversight of surface coal mine reclamation, worked closely with Wyoming DEQ to develop the updated rule. The action was spurred by a Wyoming law passed in 2020 — House Bill 129, “Reclamation of surface coal mines-turbine blades.” The federal agency noted that it asked for public comment regarding the rule change and did not receive any.

RELATED

Opponents sue to stop Rail Tie wind project, alleging unacceptable eagle mortality

Critics: Wind project adds to ‘industrialization’ of rural Wyoming

The wind energy industry, in recent years, has taken steps to address its waste issue by moving away from certain composite materials that are costly to recycle, according to the American Clean Power Association, a renewable industry trade group. Today, about 90% of wind blades in the U.S. are recyclable, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. 

The waste issue is still on the minds of lawmakers in Wyoming, however. 

House Bill 89, “Wind turbine blades-onsite disposal required,” sponsored by Rep. J.R. Riggins (R-Casper), would require “disposal of decommissioned wind turbine blades and towers on the site where the wind turbines operated.” The measure, however, would still allow for disposal at surface coal mines, Riggins told WyoFile.

Though he was unsure of whether federal approval for burial at Wyoming coal mines would come to fruition when drafting HB 89, Riggins said he wanted to ensure that wind energy developers have a disposal plan that doesn’t burden municipal landfills in the state — even if that burden falls on the private property owners who lease to wind energy developers. The landfill that serves Casper received international attention for storing hundreds of wind turbines.

Wind energy companies primarily target privately owned lands to avoid myriad federal permitting reviews.

“I’m putting the burden on the site owners and on the operating companies,” Riggins said. “That was the purpose of it. And I know they won’t like it. So give me a better plan … without Wyoming taxpayers bearing any of that burden.”