Turning old wind turbine blades into desert sand barriers

Researchers in China have developed a method to combat desertification by converting retired wind turbine blades into durable, porous sand barriers. The project, led by the Research Station of Gobi Desert Ecology and Environment under the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, addresses two challenges at once: controlling wind-blown sand and managing large volumes of composite waste from the new-energy sector.

The research findings are recently published in International Soil and Water Conservation Research.

The approach takes advantage of the fact that many wind farms in Chin’as arid northwest are located within or adjacent to desertified areas. Retired turbine blades, typically reaching the end of their 20–25-year service life around 2025, can therefore be processed locally.

"The new solution was inspired by our long-term study on sand evolution, sand-control materials and their engineering applications,” says Liu Benli, who led the  study. “It also echoes current and future demands of the new energy industry in treating damaged or retired wind turbine blades."

The researchers demonstrated that the material has a bending strength 14 times that of wood composite board, combined with excellent resistance to ultraviolet radiation, temperature extremes, and abrasive wear. “Wind-tunnel experiments and computer simulations confirmed that these barriers can significantly reduce near-surface sand transport by altering the flow patterns of wind-blown sand,” says Liu.

Compared with conventional straw or reed barriers, which gradually decompose, the repurposed-blade barriers offer longer service life and greater stability under harsh desert conditions. “With large-scale retirements of wind turbines expected during China’s 14th and 15th Five-Year Plan periods, the technology could enable on-site recycling of blades into effective, long-lasting sand-control structures, reducing both waste and environmental degradation,” says first author He Chenchen. 

Contact author:

Benli Liu, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 730000, Lanzhou China
liubenli@lzb.ac.cn

Funder:

The National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFB4202102), the Key Research and Development Projects of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (2022BEG02003), Major Science and Technology Projects of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region “Open Bidding for Selecting the Best Candidates” (2024JBGS0009-01), and the Excellent Member of Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (No. Y202085).

Conflict of interest:

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

See the article:

He Chenchen, Liu Benli, Yin Daiying, Li Minlan, Hu Caizhi, Xiao Xiang, Duan Yan, Fang Minghao, Hou Pengtao. Study on the shelter and sand control effect of new porous sand barriers from recycled wind turbine blades, China, International Soil and Water Conservation Research, Volume 13, Issue 2, Pages 475-485, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iswcr.2025.02.006