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In recent years, the sustainability of wind power has been called into question because there are currently no truly sustainable solutions to the problem of how to deal with the non-biodegradable fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite wind blades (sometimes referred to as “wings”) that capture the wind energy. The vast majority of wind blades that have reached their end-of-life (EOL) currently end up in landfills (either in full-sized pieces or pulverized into smaller pieces) or are incinerated. The problem has come to a head in recent years since many countries (especially in the EU) have outlawed, or expect to outlaw in the near future, one or both of these unsustainable and polluting disposal methods. An increasing number of studies have addressed the issue of EOL blade “waste”; however, these studies are generally of little use since they make predictions that do not account for the manner in which wind blades are decommissioned (from the time the decision is made to retire a turbine (or a wind farm) to the eventual disposal or recycling of all of its components). This review attempts to lay the groundwork for a better understanding of the decommissioning process by defining how the different EOL solutions to the problem of the blade “waste” do or do not lead to “sustainable decommissioning”. The hope is that by better defining the different EOL solutions and their decommissioning pathways, a more rigorous research base for future studies of the wind blade EOL problem will be possible. This paper reviews the prior studies on wind blade EOL and divides them into a number of categories depending on the focus that the original authors chose for their EOL assessment. This paper also reviews the different methods chosen by researchers to predict the quantities of future blade waste and shows that depending on the choice of method, predictions can be different by orders of magnitude, which is not good as this can be exploited by unscrupulous parties. The paper then reviews what different researchers define as the “recycling” of wind blades and shows that depending on the definition, the percentage of how much material is actually recycled is vastly different, which is also not good and can be exploited by unscrupulous parties. Finally, using very recent proprietary data (December 2022), the paper illustrates how the different definitions and methods affect predictions on global EOL quantities and recycling rates. 

Across coastal urban centres, underground spaces such as storage areas, transportation corridors, basement car parks, public facilities, retail & office and private spaces present a priority risk during flood events with respect to timely evacuation. However, these underground spaces are commonly not considered in urban flood prediction models, in many cases because the location and geometry of these underground spaces are often poorly known. In order to improve urban flood prediction models, various identified underground spaces have been included into the urban flood simulation presented in this paper. Here, the Software MIKE+ is adopted to simulate the coastal flood scenarios for the urban centre of the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. In the simulation, unstructured triangular grids are used. Based on the numerical simulation, urban flood depth and flooding rates into the underground spaces can be obtained. Based on the comparison of simulated urban flood scenarios with and without underground spaces, the impact of underground spaces on street-level inundation and flood routing is evaluated. It can be observed that the inclusion of underground space has a significant impact on the flood routing process. Moreover, the underground spaces also present priority risk areas during flood events with respect to timely evacuation and to this end, underground spaces cannot be ignored in real urban flood prediction. The presented study can be used to increase communities’ emergency preparedness and flood resilience 

Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials have been used in a variety of civil and infrastructure applications since the early1980s, including in wind turbine blades. The world is now confronting the problem of how to dispose of decommissioned blades in an environmentally sustainable manner. One proposed solution is to repurpose the blades for use in new structures. One promising repurposing application is in pedestrian and cycle bridges. This paper reports on the characterization of a 13.4-m long FRP wind blade manufactured by LM Windpower (Kolding, Demark) in 1994. Two blades of this type were used as girders for a pedestrian bridge on a greenway (walking and biking trail) in Cork, Ireland. The as-received geometric, material, and structural properties of the 27 year-old blade were obtained for use in the structural design of the bridge. The material tests included physical (volume fraction and laminate architecture) and mechanical (tension and compression) tests at multiple locations. Full-scale flexural testing of a 4-m long section of the blade between 7 and 11 m from the root of the blade was performed to determine the load-deflection behavior, ultimate capacity, strain history, and failure modes when loaded to failure. Key details of the testing and the results are provided. The results of the testing revealed that the FRP material is still in excellent condition and that the blade has the strength and stiffness in flexure to serve as a girder for the bridge constructed.