Wyoming Finds New Use for Wind Turbine Blades: Filling Coal Pits

Coal companies need to fill pits as they reclaim mining sites. The wind industry wants an alternative to landfills for disposing of wind turbine blades and towers.

Wyoming has a first-in-the-nation solution designed to meet both goals. The state is drafting rules that would allow coal producers to use retired blades as backfill material to replace excavated areas at surface mines.

The rules, which will be presented in final form to the Land Quality Advisory Board of the state Department of Environmental Quality in October, are authorized under a bill Gov. Mark Gordon (R) signed in March.

Disposing of the ...