The City of Cushing's Planning Commission voted against a permit for a wind turbine blade decommissioning facility, and now, the company's officials running the operation are weighing their options.
John Bok is managing partner at North Coast Enterprise, the Ohio-based company behind the facility. Founded in 2021, the company focuses on wind turbine generator decommissioning projects and operates across the U.S.
In Cushing, the facility was to cut up the wings and send the material for recycling.
During the city's planning commission's meeting for the permit, he said people voiced opposition.
"So, we don't want to upset the town. We want to work alongside the communities we're in," Bok said. "So if finding an alternative site is a better solution, we'll explore that."
In Oklahoma, there are about 5,500 wind turbines, according to the U.S. Wind Turbine Database. When wind turbine blades are replaced, the old ones must go somewhere. Although the Cushing operation was to prepare the material to be recycled, the state's first recycling center opened last year.
Although the commission voted against the permit, Cushing City Commissioners will vote on the permit in their upcoming meeting in July.
There have been incidents of companies that have not recycled the blades, which creates wind turbine graveyards. He said his company works in real time to not get behind.
"We've got a good solution. We're comfortable with partners we work with," Bok said. "But the biggest concern for any community is that blades get put on the ground, and they just sit there, and we never want to see that."
In Cushing, the operation began to cut up blades when the facility opened to get them processed, but stopped when the city asked the company to halt operations until a permit was secured. In the meantime, the blades can remain on the property, but Bok said he plans to remove them from the area over time for processing.
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