A Chinese research team has developed technology to repurpose decommissioned wind turbine blades into a material for use in asphalt mixtures and cement concrete.

Wind turbines are designed with a lifespan of 20 to 25 years. This means that after a couple of decades of providing energy, wind turbines on wind farms built in the early 2000s will soon reach retirement age.

According to Chinese news agency Xinhua, a raft of wind farms built in China during this period means that by the end of 2025 the country will have seen a wave of decommissioned wind turbines.

It is not just China. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the US estimates that between 3,000 and 9,000 turbine blades will be retired each year for the next five years in the US, increasing to between 10,000 and 20,000 until 2040.

Disposing of wind turbines once they have reached the end of their useful lives can be challenging, particularly the blades.

While the shell, nacelle, gearbox and other metallic internal components...