This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. Every year, hundreds to thousands of megawatts’ worth of wind turbines across the United States get a facelift. These aging turbines have their rotors swapped out, their blades replaced, and key components like the generator upgraded in order to enhance the machines’ ability to produce electricity from wind. This process is known as “repowering.
“What this prize really helps to do is advance some of these recycling technologies that can offer a lower-emissions, lower-resource use to a magnet,” Christoffel said. For instance, in one process for recycling rare-earth magnets that’s previously been studied, magnet scrap is placed in a furnace at elevated temperatures and exposed to hydrogen gas in order to extract the metals.