100-plus blades. Rather than bear the expense transporting outdated wind turbine blades to a recycling site, NewEra Resources abandoned them. That was four years ago.
State agencies intervenes: Get rid of them or else
GRAND MEADOW, Minn. — Four years after 100 old wind turbine blades were abandoned on an industrial lot in Grand Meadow, the state Public Utilities Commission ordered Xcel Energy to get rid of them. The blades had been a sore point – an eyesore, in fact — in this town of 1,100 people. Townspeople complained and complained, and the PUC finally acted. Also, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said it too would intervene against Xcel if the blades aren’t gone by the end of the year. The blades became Xcel’s property in the acquisition of a wind farm owned by NextEra Energy Resources in 2020. NextEra had left blades, each about four tons, when ot replaced them with more efficient blades.