{"id":429378,"date":"2026-03-03T17:51:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T16:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=429378"},"modified":"2026-03-03T17:51:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T16:51:52","slug":"waste-from-clean-energy-piles-up-across-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=429378","title":{"rendered":"Waste from \u201cclean energy\u201d piles up across the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Bonner Cohen, Ph. D.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Wind turbine with broken wings after a heavy spring storm in the Netherlands<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Long known as the nation\u2019s leading producer of oil, Texas in recent years has also surged to the top of the heap in wind energy, with over 19,000 wind turbines<\/a> operating in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

West Texas and the Panhandle have emerged as the gusty go-to places for putting the Lone Star State at the forefront of what was said to be America\u2019s transition to clean energy. Ground zero for this enterprise is Sweetwater in Nolan County. Located 40 miles west of Abelene, Sweetwater is sometimes called the \u201cWind Turbine Capital of Texas.\u201d But now the small city and its environs are experiencing the downsides of that distinction. It turns out that clean can be very dirty indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced<\/a> his office was suing Global Fiberglass Solutions, Inc. and all affiliated entities for allegedly \u201cdumping thousands of wind turbine blades and related materials at two disposal sites in Sweetwater, Texas,\u201d KTAB\/KRBC reported. The suit, filed on behalf of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, alleges the company failed to properly dispose of turbines it was hired to dismantle, transport, and recycle, resulting in the illegal stockpiling of over 3,000 turbine blades in Sweetwater. Some of the industrial waste abandoned in Sweetwater dates to 2017, prompting Paxton\u2019s office to seek up to $1 million in civil damages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIllegal disposal of wind hurts our land and will never be permitted under my watch,\u201d AG Paxton said in a statement. \u201cJust because the radical left calls something a \u2018green industry\u2019 does not give any company a free pass to harm the Texas countryside, break our laws, and leave Texans to deal with the negative impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweetwater officials are bringing their own criminal charges against those they deem responsible for polluting their city. \u201cEarlier this week, four individuals were indicted on criminal charges related to these wind blades. I hope this sends a distinct and clear message that individuals who think they\u2019re going to dump in our community are going to be held accountable and there will be consequences,\u201d City Manager Bryon Sheridan said<\/a> in a Feb. 26 press conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texas isn\u2019t the only place that has had to cope with wind turbine waste. A thousand miles to the northeast, residents of Grand Medow, Minn. had to put up with 111 fiberglass turbine blades haphazardly dumped in their community for four years. Locals in the southern Minnesota town of 1,100 complained that the cavities of broken and stained turbines drew feral cats and foxes and posed a risk to children climbing on the junk, The Star Tribune<\/em> reported<\/a>. The mess unfolded in 2020, when renewable-energy developer NextEra Energy rebuilt a wind farm in Mower County but had trouble finding a company to recycle the discarded fiberglass blades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite a growing chorus of complaints by locals, it was not until October 2024 that the blades were removed, and then only after the Minnesota Public Service Commission ordered<\/a> NextEra Energy to clean up the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even as the Trump administration gives wind power the cold shoulder, waste generated by the industry threatens to become a serious environmental problem. As noted<\/a> by Ariel Cohen in Forbes<\/em>, \u201cwind turbines\u2019 large blades are constructed from fiberglass, carbon fiber, and epoxy resin, rendering conventional recycling procedures ineffective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWind Turbine Graveyards\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disposal of giant blades in landfills is often the only way to deal with equipment that is no longer serviceable. \u201cBlades are frequently buried in fragments in several landfills throughout the Great Plains,\u201d Cohen adds, \u201ctransforming sites in Wyoming, Iowa, and South Dakota into wind turbine graveyards. By 2050, the cumulative decommissioning material from wind turbines could reach 133 million tons. On average, 3,000 \u2013 9,000 blades are being taken out of service per year in the United States, and that number is expected to increase to 10,000 \u2013 20,000 blades per year by 2040.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, even in the absence of dubious corporate behavior as was seen in Texas and Minnesota, the environmental impact of industrial-scale wind facilities extends far beyond the operational lifespan of turbine blades and related equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another supposed source of clean energy, solar power, comes with its own waste-related baggage. Estimates from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency<\/a> project that by 2030, the nation could have as much as one million tons of solar panel waste on its hands. Citing what it says is a \u201ctidal wave of solar e-waste,\u201d the renewable energy company Solar N Plus notes<\/a> that, \u201cWhen sent to landfills, the toxic materials used in solar panels, such as lead, cadmium, and other heavy metals, can leach into the soil and groundwater, posing a public health risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small wonder that the vaunted transition to clean energy is encountering headwinds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In February, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton\u00a0announced\u00a0his office was suing Global Fiberglass Solutions, Inc. and all affiliated entities for allegedly \u201cdumping thousands of wind turbine blades and related materials at two disposal sites in Sweetwater, Texas,\u201d KTAB\/KRBC reported. The suit, filed on behalf of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, alleges the company failed to properly dispose of turbines it was hired to dismantle, transport, and recycle, resulting in the illegal stockpiling of over 3,000 turbine blades in Sweetwater. Some of the industrial waste abandoned in Sweetwater dates to 2017, prompting Paxton\u2019s office to seek up to $1 million in civil damages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":429385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691819094,691823138,691818577,691841716,691841715],"class_list":{"0":"post-429378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-renewable-green-energy","9":"tag-sweetwater","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton","12":"tag-wind-turbine-graveyard","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Wind-Turbine-Graveyards1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1NHs","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":281245,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=281245","url_meta":{"origin":429378,"position":0},"title":"Dump & Run: Thousands of Toxic Wind Turbine Blades Pile Up Across\u00a0America","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"30\/09\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"From STOP THESE THINGS Across the USA, wind power outfits are being repeatedly busted for dumping their blades and simply cutting and running. Then there are scammers like Global Fiberglass Solutions Inc which makes claims about recycling dumped blades, notwithstanding there is no market for ground up toxic waste, funnily\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Bisphenol A\"","block_context":{"text":"Bisphenol A","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=bisphenol-a"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-892.png?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-892.png?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-892.png?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-892.png?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-892.png?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":282812,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=282812","url_meta":{"origin":429378,"position":1},"title":"Covering the truth about invasive renewable energy projects ft. Yucca Films","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/10\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Green energy is not green. From\u00a0CFACT By\u00a0Gabriella Hoffman\u00a0 One particular video we did was in Sweetwater, Texas, showing it\u2019s around a 20-acre graveyard\u2026And we\u2019re seeing, you know, in the Sweetwater area, that wind turbine farm is just around ten years old. So we\u2019re seeing about a 10-year lifespan on these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Nebraska\"","block_context":{"text":"Nebraska","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=nebraska"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0Yucca-Wind-Graveyard.png?fit=1189%2C869&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0Yucca-Wind-Graveyard.png?fit=1189%2C869&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0Yucca-Wind-Graveyard.png?fit=1189%2C869&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0Yucca-Wind-Graveyard.png?fit=1189%2C869&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/0Yucca-Wind-Graveyard.png?fit=1189%2C869&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":218233,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=218233","url_meta":{"origin":429378,"position":2},"title":"New Sustainability Standard: Wind Industry Illegally Dumping Thousands of Turbine Blades","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/09\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"As hundreds of thousands of\u00a0toxic wind turbine blades\u00a0head for landfills near you, thousands more are being dumped illegally.","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=218233#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/0Screenshot-2022-09-10-135230.png?fit=986%2C557&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/0Screenshot-2022-09-10-135230.png?fit=986%2C557&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/0Screenshot-2022-09-10-135230.png?fit=986%2C557&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/0Screenshot-2022-09-10-135230.png?fit=986%2C557&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":286044,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=286044","url_meta":{"origin":429378,"position":3},"title":"Touring Texan Turbine Graveyards Becomes Latest Green Tourism\u00a0Venture","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/11\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"wind_blade_graveyard Finding an environmentally friendly and economical way to dispose of the blades will become a growing problem. In the U.S. alone, there are an estimated 54,000 turbines in operation at the moment with 164,000 blades, according to Global Fiberglass Solutions. 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Solar panels are a veritable toxic cocktail of gallium arsenide, tellurium, silver, crystalline silicon, lead, cadmium, and heavy earth material. Then there\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0goodell-turbines-1100x825-1.jpg?fit=1100%2C825&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0goodell-turbines-1100x825-1.jpg?fit=1100%2C825&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0goodell-turbines-1100x825-1.jpg?fit=1100%2C825&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0goodell-turbines-1100x825-1.jpg?fit=1100%2C825&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0goodell-turbines-1100x825-1.jpg?fit=1100%2C825&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=429378"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429386,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429378\/revisions\/429386"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/429385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=429378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=429378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=429378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}