Green technology has come a long way. The next challenge for the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory is to develop ways to recycle the recycling infrastructure. The clean energy sector faces a major stumbling block. The power it produces may be renewable, but the infrastructure it uses is far from it. Over the past decade, advances in composite materials have allowed the construction of enormous turbine blades. Some are now longer than the wingspan of a Boeing 747. As blades have increased, so have the costs to transport them. When wind farms need to replace aging blades, it is now often cheaper to leave them lying on the ground. Continue reading “Breathing new life into renewable energy”