Method for estimating the future annual mass of decommissioned wind
turbine blade material in Denmark
Abstract
A model of the evolution of the onshore wind turbine blade mass
installed in Denmark is proposed described by a Weibull distribution and
the age of the blades is estimated from decommissioning data to
t50 %,onshore = 29 years when half of the blade mass of
an installation year has been decommissioned. This is considerable
longer than the 20 year design life time of onshore turbines, which is
often assumed to be an estimate of the End-of-Life of turbine blades.
Thus blade waste predictions using the simple assumption may predict
that installed blade masses are entering recycling processes about 9
years sooner that what is observed in Denmark. The blade mass for
decommissioning in Denmark is estimate to peak at 2000 ton/year and 5000
ton/year in 2028 and 2045 using the Weibull model.