Bridge construction using decommissioned wind turbine blades as a poverty alleviation centric technology: possibilities and implementation example

Wind energy is the second most popular renewable energy source (RES) in the world after solar energy. The most important problem of using wind energy is the recycling of turbine rotor blades, which are made of FRP composites. Thanks to their shape and mechanical parameters wind turbine blades can be used in construction industry i.e. as bridge girders. Reused in this way, as a component of cheap house or bridge wind turbine blades can contribute in poverty alleviation. The paper presents the example of reusing wind turbine blade as a footbridge main girder. The design, numerical simulations as well as static and fatigue tests with the use of a distributed fibre optic sensors to assess the behaviour of the structure under load are described. Successful examination in the laboratory led to the first Polish implementation of a footbridge made of reused wind turbine blades. The main conclusions from this project and plans of the research team for future development of hybrid wind turbine blade - concrete bridge girder are also presented in the paper.