Wind power developer pledges to clear discarded turbine blades from Minnesota town

The company that dismantled the wind turbine blades now stacked on an empty lot in the small Minnesota town of Grand Meadow says it will start moving them in early October.

NextEra Energy, a Florida-based renewable power developer, made the pledge to Minnesota utility regulators after two startup recycling contractors failed to move the junk for nearly four years. Both companies are no longer operating, according to a former executive.

Grand Meadow leaders and residents have contended the turbine blades are an unauthorized dump that has attracted animals and poses a safety hazard to children.

Their exasperation eventually put their concern in front of the state Public Utilities Commission, which ordered the company to act. Katie Sieben, a DFLer who chairs the commission, said the PUC expects developers of energy infrastructure to have "proper removal and recycling."

"Thanks to the engagement of local officials and folks on the ground in Grand Meadow we were able to push NextEra to meet their obligations to remove the blades as soon as possible," Sieben said.

NextEra acknowledged it was taking a risk by working with startup companies. The commission also said it should have set deadlines for the turbine blades to be recycled.

"I'm happy that somebody is actually taking responsibility," city administrator James Christian said.

In 2020, NextEra upgraded a wind farm a few miles from the site in part by switching out its massive blades. The old ones were trucked to a vacant lot in Grand Meadow, a community south of Rochester, with the expectation they would be recycled somewhere else.

Instead, the recycling company went defunct. A successor company called Canvus took responsibility for the blades in 2022, but that company also went out of business in late August, said Brian Donahue, a former leader at both companies.

Xcel Energy owns the wind farm after buying it from NextEra, but Xcel said it couldn't step in because it didn't own the discarded turbine blades. NextEra said Thursday it doesn't have title to them either.

But provided it has permission from the owners of the lot, NextEra says it can start moving the blades by Oct. 5, either to a more suitable waystation in Kansas or to a recycling facility in Missouri.

One of those property owners, Travis Warmka, feared the task would fall to him. In August, he used a stump grinder to see if he could cut one of the fiberglass blades. Christian said it created a hazardous dust cloud. The city ordered Warmka to stop.

Joe Sullivan, a DFL commissioner, questioned if NextEra could legally seize and recycle the blades without permission from Canvus and if a bankruptcy court could stall action.

NextEra attorney Micah Revell said the company has options through its contract to take control of the blades if the recyclers fail to act. Revell said he hasn't been able to reach anyone at Canvus.

The company is trying to transfer the blades "before a bank gets involved," because it might object to NextEra destroying the property, said Sean Harrington, NextEra's executive director of construction.

"We're willing to take some risk here and move forward," Revell said.

Sieben said the PUC ordered the blades removed and recycled through its NextEra permit but did not set an explicit deadline. Xcel's permit for the wind farm now has a date by which the blades must be discarded.

Harrington said that, back in 2020, NextEra didn't want the blades to end up in a landfill. But going with a risky startup was "not a great decision."

"Obviously we admit that this was not a good choice," Harrington said. "But since then we've developed longstanding relationships with more flush major companies that dispose of all these blades in a timely manner."

Mower County, and the Laborers' International Union of North America, said proper disposal is necessary not just in this case, but to retain goodwill as the state aims to build a huge amount of wind and solar to meet its goal for a carbon-free grid by 2040.

"We think the social license to continue building and operating wind and other energy facilities is jeopardized when communities get a very different deal than what they thought they signed up for," said Kevin Pranis, marketing manager for LIUNA in Minnesota.

During the hearing, Sieben pledged fast action. "Clear out the raccoons and we want to move them before it starts to snow," she said.

John Tuma, a Republican commissioner, predicted it could lead to a parade with confetti. "There will probably be a new holiday," he said: "The day the blades left."