SF6 gas in switchgear of wind turbines
Environmentally friendly recycling of SF6 gas from wind turbines
With the expansion of wind energy as a climate friendly version of power production, a controversial discussion about the use of SF6 gas in the SF6 gas filled medium voltage switchgear used in wind turbines occurred. The amount of SF6 gas used in these plants is relatively small, but the high amount of these plants create the problem.
On the one hand it is possible to prevent emissions when these plants are used with treated gas, which has the quality of new gas. This prevents significant amounts of emission produced in the production of new gas. On the other hand it is important to pay attention to the proper dismantling, evacuation and disposal of SF6 gas when taking the plants out of operation. Since burning used SF6 gas to destroy it uses significant amounts of energy, emissions can further be prevented by not burning the gas but treating it and reusing it instead of new SF6 gas.
