“..growing market for second hand turbines…. ” sounds like a quote from a broker looking for new, or nearly new, products to peddle. There again who on earth is going to remove turbine blades while the entire assembly is up and running ? So they only become available to a market when the entire turbine & tower assembly reaches “end of life” i.e knackered !

Shame there isn’t a market for failed colonial government ministers…… silly me, most likely there are spaces for them in the ever growing Third Sector !

Letter says ‘Welsh Government’ to end landfill by 2025. So an alternative plan for waste disposal is in place, is it? Or course it is – we’re gonna dump it all in Eastern Europe.

Makes me want to laugh. This letter is so fuckin’ corny, like one idiot writing to another. Or at least the prick working in Lesley’s office who drafted that letter thinks Rebecca is an idiot. Lesley lets letters like that out because she hasn’t a clue what is being done on her watch and the shifty bastards behind it all have a sense that they can do whatever they wish and get away with it. Accountability ? Just a concept, not really relevant in the parallel universe that governs us.

Here’s the letter. She’s hasn’t got an answer and she is really floundering.

There’s a letter that has emerged from Lesley Griffiths MS, Minister for Environment to Rebecca Evans MS, Finance Minister, about recycling wind turbine blades. It’s bullshit. Wind turbine blades are made of composite glass fibre infused with epoxy resin (building up layers like making a canoe) or glass fibre infused with polyester (baked in a huge oven).

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EXay4MUX0AEUv7z?format=jpg&name=large

It is possible to burn off the plastic content to leave the glass fibre, but the suggestion that this glass fibre can be used in concrete is fraught with problems as concrete is alkaline and it reacts with glass to make any tensile strands it too brittle for any practical use. To stop this it is possible to ‘metalise’ the glass by introducing zirconium oxides (expensive) and even this is only used to enhance the optical properties of non-load bearing cladding as it makes concrete temporarily look whiter.

Pollution. Obviously, the other component, polyester a type of nylon, degrades into micro-plastic particles that pollute the oceans. It’s toxic to the eco-system. It is best disposed of in landfill or burnt, giving off poisonous vapours, unless full oxidation is done in a pressurised oven, at temperatures where you lose the glass fibre.

There is a very expensive alternative to the glass fibre in the composite, to use carbon fibre. This is much stronger and lighter, but this is not currently used in making wind turbine blades due to cost. It’s mainly used in fuselage for high specification aeroplanes or formula one racing cars. It cannot be recycled, only burnt.

Of course, there are opportunities for ‘downcycling’. This is where wind turbine blades are shipped to the coast of India along with scrapped ships. This is where they are chopped up and put through a grinder (liberating deadly particles into the air like asbestos) and the resulting fibrous mass is compressed into insulation blocks. These substandard insulation blocks still have the remaining polyester content it is flammable, even when encased in aluminium panels as used at Greenwell Tower in London.

There is a current ‘waiting list’ for new turbine blades. This is because China has cornered the manufacture and has recently been subject to trade tariffs. If this is a concern for the Lesley, perhaps she would ask Rebecca to make available for loan guarantees to make some in Wales, but her idea of dumping second hand ones in ‘Eastern Europe’ is pure racism.

Was there any Klingons or Ferengi around these vehicles, Neil, or was it Rob Howleys day off?

At the time there was a rush to get the MoD to generate cash by liquidating of land value from its estate. It was Labour in power in the Westminster House and the cost of foreign wars was creating unease in their ranks. Keep the taxpayer budget down by selling off land as quickly as possible. When Mark James got the circular from London, he must have dusted off his dinner jacket and dug out the WRU tie. I seem to remember councils in provincial England getting into fights over sites that became earmarked for social housing development being gazumped by London boroughs. Lots of strange dealings lubricated by spooks in blazers.

I suspect planet Borehamwood. It may indicate that the Swansea property has been disposed of, or a deal fell through, in the Llamau acquisition process with this outfit..

https://langdonuk.org/about-us/about-us/

They have lots of spare cash. Or it just could be a mischievous agent provocateur given their operational niche.

As I explain, the ‘back to back’ purchase was done to clear the way for the MoD to lend Lovering and his gang the money to buy the site. They could not have done this if Lovering had been buying directly from the MoD. So Mark James helped out. Though I’m surprised no one pressed him to explain it, because he would have had difficulty doing so.

What planet are you writing from? I hope you receive this.