4WD
$50 site donor 2025
Yeah, and the cities/counties they serve keeping putting unqualified people in the leather chairs …
Solar eating its own lunch in ERCOT
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4WD
$50 site donor 2025
Policy matters - those who desire to end fracking overnight just don’t get anything discussed in this thread …
It was banned in 1977 with the current storage policy act being enacted in 1982(ish) I believe. I could have the years wrong but around that time frame. Specifically, waste rods from generation stations can’t be recycled due to concerns of weapons grade materials
Yes, Carter banned reprocessing, but Bush entered the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) in 2006, which for all intents and purposes overturned the ban.
I’ll have to look into that when I get back to work. During training sessions, it’s still taught that recycling is illegal/prohibited. There may still be something on the books about it under DOE or NRC.
Let us know, it could be effectively banned, kind of like a pocket veto.
Things in utilities are different. We consider certain regulations as law since mandatory fines & jail time can be associated with certain things. Not just company fines but operator can be liable for jail time & fines as well. My DOE417 reporting criteria comes to mind with that one. Mandatory fine & jail time for late reporting.
Long story short, several items may not be public knowledge but are actively enforced
Regarding the end of useful life for turbine blades and solar panels, when you consider that wind power has been a serious player for 25 years, and solar for ten years, I have a lot of confidence that the engineers and scientists will greatly improve the lifespan of these products with time. 
dnewton3
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Nothing teaches us better than a total failure. But so far, we've not set up a 100% "clean" city as a test case that I'm aware of. I mean a true, complete commitment to "clean" energy (solar/wind) as the sole energy source. (I exclude hydro because there are lots of areas on this continent that don't have access to that kind of energy).
What needs to be done, to illuminate the folly of a pure-green grid, is to build a small scale model (perhaps convert a smaller city of 50k people or less) and let it attempt to survive on that pure-green grid for several seasons. I propose we convert a small city to pure green tech. That city will have to 100% survive on solar/wind, including the disposal of all decommissioned equipment (turbine blades and solar panels sitting in their local landfill). When it fails (and it most certainly won't take long), then we can turn the discussion to the proper use of "clean" energy (which is as a supplement to more abundant, reliable, prolific sources like gas and nuclear).
What needs to be done, to illuminate the folly of a pure-green grid, is to build a small scale model (perhaps convert a smaller city of 50k people or less) and let it attempt to survive on that pure-green grid for several seasons. I propose we convert a small city to pure green tech. That city will have to 100% survive on solar/wind, including the disposal of all decommissioned equipment (turbine blades and solar panels sitting in their local landfill). When it fails (and it most certainly won't take long), then we can turn the discussion to the proper use of "clean" energy (which is as a supplement to more abundant, reliable, prolific sources like gas and nuclear).
The design lifespan of wind turbines blades has little to do when they are replaced in the US. In order to get subsidies turbine owners need to have substantial investment in existing wind farm, so the replace the blades in a little as 7 years. They throw the still useful bladed away and install new to maintain their subsidies. It's a complete waste.Regarding the end of useful life for turbine blades and solar panels, when you consider that wind power has been a serious player for 25 years, and solar for ten years, I have a lot of confidence that the engineers and scientists will greatly improve the lifespan of these products with time.
4WD
$50 site donor 2025
None other than ExxonMobil is working on the blade material …Regarding the end of useful life for turbine blades and solar panels, when you consider that wind power has been a serious player for 25 years, and solar for ten years, I have a lot of confidence that the engineers and scientists will greatly improve the lifespan of these products with time.
after all - they don’t want that special gear oil blamed when they shear
Go get funding for one then lol…there’s a reason why and it’s not completely due to NIMBY opposition.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Solar panel lifespan is very closely tied to cost. China makes some extremely affordable PV panels, but they do not last as long as the older, non-China panels. There are some very old solar panels out there still operating, but a large number of them are removed from service and replaced with new panels with better output through repowering subsidies/incentives, not because they have reached end of life. The bigger issue with PV is the inverters, which, like any other modern electronic, tends to also come from China and their failure can take out the system, if it's old enough.Regarding the end of useful life for turbine blades and solar panels, when you consider that wind power has been a serious player for 25 years, and solar for ten years, I have a lot of confidence that the engineers and scientists will greatly improve the lifespan of these products with time.
Wind turbines have only gotten bigger, as have the blades, which increases the stresses on them. This is why we've seen a lot of premature blade failures recently, that we didn't see with the older, smaller ones. They live and operate in a very harsh environment, so there's a limit as to how durable you can make them while still making economic sense, the latter which, has been a problem for offshore wind, which stopped going down in price and in fact has gone up.
I recall Exxon worked on a electric car in the 80’s. I knew one of the tech’s who worked on it. One day, they loaded the prototypes and sent them to Japan then disbanded the team. The computing power was not there and the batteries weighed too much. All that was coming. Then some guy named Elon figured out its OK to have several thousand toy sized batteries power the thing and with government subsidies, it took off.None other than ExxonMobil is working on the blade material …
after all - they don’t want that special gear oil blamed when they shear
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4WD
$50 site donor 2025
Yeah, they had a bunch of thin film tech and manufacturing as well …
I’d like to see the data on the short life of the “Chinese panels”. Most solar quotes talk about 25 to 30 years of guaranteed performance with a certain amount of degradation allowed and certainly they use panels manufactured in China. The bigger risk is that the quoting company disappears.
They can be recycled but the reality is that they don't degrade as quickly as pundits would like you to think they do.
There are pundits on the other side as well.
When they talk about recycling, I hope you realize it’s the bracketry and hardware around the panels, maybe the top clear panel if it’s not bonded too strongly, wires and parts of the inverters. The panels themselves go into the trash. They cannot be recycled as of yet.
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