Old Wind Turbines Could Become The Next Big Source Of Rare Earth Materials

No matter how amazing wind power is, it's not flawless. Wind turbines generally take decades to pay off, and last around 25 to 30 years, at best. So, the question is: what happens with all those old wind turbines? The tall, steel towers are obvious candidates for recycling, but the massive blades — constructed from polymers — are not recyclable. Fortunately, scientists and a wide array of companies are finding ingenious ways to reuse them. Repurposing the blades as bridge girders is just one example, as a company in Europe is also turning the wind turbine blades into cute little houses.

Furthermore, decommissioned turbines are also a valuable source of rare earth minerals, according to Luke Wray, senior VP at Paladin Envirotech. Wray points out that direct-drive turbines, and more precisely their generators, hold a significant amount of rare materials, such as neodymium. Neodymium magnets are necessary for everything from audio devices to smartphones, so old turbines could technically become a valuable secondary source of this material.

It doesn't end there, either. The circuit boards used for wind turbines may contain expensive precious metals, such as palladium, silver, and gold. Considering that the demand for these rare earth minerals and metals will only grow as renewable energy (and other tech) becomes more common, decommissioned turbines are literal gold mines for recyclers.

Building tiny houses made from wind turbines is an unhinged concept. Scrapping interiors of wind turbines for neodymium, not as much. Take the EU, for example. As far back as 2019, scientists there were developing hydrogen technologies to separate the neodymium and purify it — dubbed the FP7 Remanence project. Fast forward to today, and the progress in this field is measurable.

The Hydrogen Processing of Magnet Scrap (HPMS) was developed by MMG and HyProMag at the University of Birmingham as a method of extracting and recycling rare-earth magnetic materials like neodymium from all sorts of decommissioned products. HPMS separates and demagnetizes neodymium magnets and transforms them into alloy powder in just a few hours. This powder can be processed further without using any chemicals, and it can later be turned into other rare-earth alloys or new magnets.

This approach allows decommissioned wind turbines to become more valuable, as companies can extract useful materials from them. Countries that employ this approach can technically cut down on their mining activities, and more importantly, minimize imports.