NRC: ‘Wind turbine blades work surprisingly well as noise barriers’
March 2026
Liza van Lonkhuyzen wrote an article in NRC about the Blade Barrier®, the very first sound barrier made from repurposed wind turbine blades. “Discarded wind turbine blades usually end up in incinerators. However, the start-up Blade–Made has discovered just how effective they are as noise barriers along motorways.”
The idea to give them a second life as a noise barrier on the motorway had been on the back burner for years. ‘Forget it,’ a noise expert had said when they started the pilot project along the A58 near Oirschot in Brabant. ‘He said: this is rock-hard, it doesn’t absorb anything.’
Thijs von Barnau Sythoff of Blade–Made: “The fact that wind turbine blades are strong can be seen as an obstacle to their disposal, but also as a quality.”
The material is incredibly hard, and so supposedly wouldn’t absorb sound. Yet the Blade Barrier actually does work, concluded Rijkswaterstaat in February following research. It works just as well as an existing concrete noise barrier. “That’s called reflection,” says Von Barnau Sythoff. “It is the double-curved shape of the blade that actually causes the sound bouncing off it to scatter. It goes in all directions. And the effect is the same as if it were absorbing the sound.”
The trial also yielded other surprises. Because the blade can span a great distance, over four times less steel is required for the foundations than with concrete screens.
The final report is due at the end of this year – it will also examine costs, maintenance, safety and sustainability. In any case, Rijkswaterstaat is already proudly calling the wind turbine barrier a world first.
Blade Barrier® was developed in close collaboration with Rijkswaterstaat InnovA58, Dura Vermeer and with a circular breakthrough grant from the Province of Noord Brabant.
Read the full article via NRC.
