True confession time. We have known each other now for what, like, eight months? I feel I can come clean about certain aspects of my life, and one of them is watching a network evening news broadcast. We always have, and probably always will.

There. That filthy secret is off my chest.

There are times, honestly, when I’m not sure why we put ourselves through what can occasionally be torture, but as Hubs says, “Better to know exactly what the enemy is saying than be ignorant and surprised.”

Ardent supporters of all things progressive, we were therefore equally surprised when the CBS Evening News performed (what used to be known in the business as) an “act of journalism.” In a really thorough and honest (!) report, they went after the waste being generated by the renewables industry.

Even the headline for the piece was sans unicorns and excuses.

A black eye for green energy? Renewable energy growth brings mounting waste challenge

And they didn’t mince words.

Driven primarily by wind and solar power, renewable energy sources surpassed coal for electricity generation in the United States last year, marking a significant milestone. However, as the industry expands, a new problem emerges: what to do with the mounting waste generated by worn-out solar panels and wind turbine blades.

More than 90% of discarded solar panels end up in landfills. By 2030, the retired panels are estimated to cover an area equivalent to about 3,000 football fields. But the panels, primarily composed of glass and aluminum, contain valuable and reusable materials.

At a solar panel recycling plant in Yuma, Arizona, Adam Saghei, CEO of We Recycle Solar, and his company aim to tackle what he calls a “tsunami” of impending solar waste by recycling or reusing nearly 70 million pounds of solar panels annually.

The report has ignited a firestorm of retweets on Twitter, so they may be ruing the impulse to let it rip by now. Folks in comments on chirpy tweets from wind farm projects or manufacturers are basically giving authors the Peter Doocy treatment using the CBS piece. It makes a heckuva ready-made bludgeon.

The wind industry is also producing waste — creating an estimated 47 million tons of blade waste annually by 2050.
Does #NoPlanDan have a 30 Yr turbine waste plan?
What about @SenWhitehouse?
Doubt it!https://t.co/dBBinMUCH8

— Mark Dosd (@MGDosd) May 1, 2023

Wind turbines right now are the biggest waste problem and I mean that literally and figuratively. There are SO many of them about ready to be retired, but that number in the coming years – reaching the end of their 20-30 year lifecycle – is going to increase exponentially. And they are physically YUGE.

…According to a 2017 study published in the scientific journal Waste Management, the world’s wind industry will be producing 43 million tons of blade waste annually by 2050.

That’s the equivalent weight of 215,000 locomotives. The U.S. and Europe will account for 41% of that.

The size and weight of the blades vary, but the average length is around 120 feet and they weigh around five tons. Some of the largest can be as long as a football field and weigh 20 tons.

Currently, there are no scalable, cost-effective technologies to recycle the blades, and most of them are going to landfills.

Hundreds of thousands of these monstrous, indestructible blades and nothing to be done with them at scale right now, less mind any plan in the future. Is this any way to run an industry?

If it were any industry but “Green energy” the answer would be? [NSFW lip reading at end]

Can confirm.

One Wyoming artist has ideas and is also upfront about these things overwhelming whatever disposal sites we have. In fact, it was watching blades being buried (for lack of any alternative) in his hometown of Casper that galvanized him to think of something, anything, to try to be part of the solution.

For all his efforts, he will always be a minuscule part.

Another idea, while innovative, seems to me to have limited appeal. I’m not sure how “Blades to Gummi Bears” translates into actual industrial potential.

Wind turbines could be given a truly sweet second life thanks to a new discovery from engineers in the US.

They have invented a new type of resin, the material that coats turbine blades, that could be reused to make countertops, car tail lights, power tools, nappies and even gummy bears.

The breakthrough, from chemical engineers at the University of Michigan, could hold the key to one of the biggest challenges that comes with wind power: how to recycle turbine blades.

EW, but points for trying. I’m going to take a wild stab that’s where a boatload of our tax dollars went – for Green energy university grants on research “discovering” this. Oh, yay.

Renewables and those who push the nirvana of the promise shouldn’t be allowed another step until they’ve come up with a solution. They demand it of nuclear without a second thought. Coal-generated electricity has gotten cleaner year by year while natural gas plants run efficiently and are bucketloads earth friendlier than burying blades after they’re done killing whales and raptors and driving people insane from the hum.

Yet it’s demanded that we turn away from all of them for this half-baked scheme?

It’s money and control.

Former Vice President at Pfizer, Dr. Mike Yeadon:

"When the UN, and Bill Gates, and Klaus Schwab tell you that you won't be travelling, you won't have a private car, there won't be any flights, you won't own anything and you'll be happy, you probably won't live in your own… pic.twitter.com/pACzJaEE4N

— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) May 3, 2023

That’s all it is.

Let them clean up their “clean” Green energy act FIRST.

Tired of the virtue signaling, tired of the lies being legislatively forced down our throats, and I damn sure won’t eat the bugs.