making outdoor furniture<\/a> out of discarded wind turbine blades. Bridges, Sobczyk says, are the next area it would like to expand into commercially.<\/p>\nThe company\u2019s first blade bridge took about three years to test, permit, and build. After harvesting decommissioned blades from a wind farm in Germany, the blades were subjected to a battery of engineering tests in partnership with Poland\u2019s Rzesz\u00f3w University of Technology before being cut up to create the primary support structures for a pedestrian footbridge. In October, Amnet installed that bridge over a river in Szprotawa, the small town where the company is headquartered. <\/p>\n
Because it was a first-of-its-kind demonstration, Anmet financed the bridge, along with a grant from the European Union to help cover the cost of the engineering tests. In the future, the company hopes to get paid by municipalities to build similar bridges across Poland, Germany, and beyond. Sobczyk believes Amnet will be able to offer a price that\u2019s competitive with traditional steel and concrete bridges while also solving a waste problem by taking decommissioned blades off wind energy companies\u2019 hands.<\/p>\n
The team behind the new Irish blade bridge also believes they will be cost-competitive with more traditional bridges in addition to offering environmental advantages. Angela Nagle, a civil engineering Ph.D. candidate at the University College Cork and a member of the ReWind network, says that by using blades decommissioned from a wind farm in Belfast, the team avoided nearly 800 kilograms of CO2 emissions that would have occurred had they used steel girders. ReWind, she says, is exploring other ways to streamline production of future bridges, including through standardized design elements and by developing more efficient ways to evaluate the condition of used blades and \u201cbucket them for various repurposing applications.\u201d<\/p>\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/source><\/picture>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n
The ReWind bridge\u2019s first blade bridge was test assembled before being installed along a new pedestrian greenway.<\/em><\/figcaption>ReWind<\/cite><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
Such efforts may be key to launching companies that can build bridges efficiently enough to turn a profit. According to Ruane, a major challenge in constructing these bridges is reverse-engineering the physical properties of the blades, which manufacturers typically consider proprietary information. For ReWind\u2019s first bridge, the team conducted nine months of engineering and materials tests to inform the bridge\u2019s design. Whether future testing can be streamlined to save time and scale up production is \u201cperhaps the key question in some respects,\u201d Ruane says.<\/p>\n
But Ruane is hopeful that as blade manufacturers and wind energy companies start to see structures like this out in the world, the repurposing market will \u201cget more buy-in from the industry.\u201d Ruane says he\u2019s had preliminary conversations with a number of blade manufacturers that are \u201cstarting to get interested in what we\u2019re doing.\u201d <\/p>\n
\n
Something like these never existed<\/q><\/aside>\n<\/div>\nAs blade bridge builders seek additional support from industries and governments alike, their first public constructions face a more imminent test: public opinion. While ReWind\u2019s blade bridge won\u2019t open until the spring when County Cork\u2019s new greenway section is completed, Anmet\u2019s bridge is already in use. Sobczyk estimates that \u201c80 to 90 percent\u201d of the comments he\u2019s received on the bridge have been positive, although some locals have found its appearance a bit strange. Anmet also faced some skepticism when it first began placing repurposed wind blade furniture around town.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people said they don\u2019t like it,\u201d Sobczyk says. <\/p>\n
But in summer, as residents began spending more time outside, Sobczyk says that negative opinions about the furniture started to shift. People started to realize \u201cthat they have something new. Something like these never existed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/2\/11\/22929059\/recycled-wind-turbine-blade-bridges-world-first<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Source: On a former train track bed connecting the towns of Midleton and Youghal in County Cork, Ireland, workers recently excavated the rusted remains of an old railway bridge and installed a pedestrian one in its place. The bridge would have been an unremarkable milestone in the development of a new pedestrian greenway through the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,26],"tags":[43],"class_list":["post-593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-science","tag-environment"],"yoast_head":"\n
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