Tag: onshore wind

Waste management at end of life of wind turbines: reflection on my VC-ECR research journey

Author Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments | Posted on

by Carla De Laurentis

The 31st of July 2025 marked the end of my Vice Chancellor’s Early Career Researcher (VC-ECR) Development Award entitled: ‘Exploring waste management opportunities and challenges from end of life of on-shore wind infrastructure in the UK’.

When I wrote the proposal, my aim was to investigate the challenges associated with managing wind turbines at the end of their operational life, a topic of increasing relevance in the UK’s renewable energy landscape.

Throughout the life of the project, I investigated current practices and the innovation emerging in the sustainable waste management practices for wind turbines in the UK, looking at emerging technologies and innovations in recycling, reusing and repurposing components and materials.

I had the opportunity to investigate some in-depth case studies of UK onshore wind farms that are approaching or have reached the end of their lifecycle. These studies provided valuable insights into the practical realities of decommissioning and highlighted both the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. I was fortunate to collaborate with researchers, industry experts, and policymakers, engaging in site visits and research interviews.

Blade Bridge, Cork, Ireland and dismissed blades at DTU, Denmark

As an innovation scholar, I recognise that collaboration is fundamental to achieving sustainable innovation. I believe that the challenges of end of life of wind infrastructure can be addressed by bringing together diverse perspectives, skills, and experiences, and collaborative effort among waste management organisations, wind developers and asset owners, SMEs and circular economy specialists. With this in mind, the project served as a knowledge exchange platform to disseminate ideas and best-practices in the West of England and beyond, engaging with a diverse range of organisations and professionals. It also enabled me to build new relationships between the university, industries and innovators involved in the decommissioning of onshore wind energy projects.

The VC ECR Development Award also supported the organisation of two successful workshops at UWE Bristol. Thanks to the enthusiasm and passion of the attendees, we were able to:

  • Investigate the extent to which the current knowledge on end of life of wind infrastructure is adequate in addressing the emerging waste challenge as wind turbines approach their end of life;
  • Share lessons from the UK and international contexts on end-of-life practices in wind infrastructure;
  • Map the decommissioning landscape, including insights into repowering, regulatory frameworks, decision-making drivers and circular economy challenges;
  • Identify key knowledge gaps and explore collaborative strategies to address them.
When the turbine stops Workshop, UWE Bristol, 10/09/2024

As the VC-ECR Development Award comes to a close, the insights and connections developed through this project have supported me to develop future research opportunities and collaboration. I am pleased to share that this work has contributed to several ongoing initiatives. I am co-investigator on the Regulations to Ensure Sustainable Circular Use at End-of-Life for Wind (RESCUE) Project, funded by the UK Research and Innovation’s ‘UK Regulatory Science and Innovation Networks’ (RS&IN) programme; I have joined the IEA Wind International Task 45 on the Recycling of wind turbine blades contributing to global efforts to advance sustainable practices; I am also the co-creator of the Wind Energy End of Life Observatory (WEELO) designed as a collaborative platform to advance knowledge and understanding of end of life challenges in wind infrastructure.

As I work on the final report for the project, consolidating data on decommissioned wind projects, best practices, and policy frameworks in support of the sustainable decommissioning and recycling of wind turbines, I remain deeply grateful to everyone who contributed to the workshops, interviews, and discussions. A special thank you to UWE Bristol for the fantastic opportunity to carry out this research.

More information on the project is available here: End-of life of onshore wind infrastructure in the UK – Projects | UWE Bristol

End of life of wind infrastructure: what factors influence decision making?

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by Carla De Laurentis

On the 29th May 2024, I was invited to Cork to present a recently published research paper at the Second Wind Value Conference on End of Life Issues for Wind Farms, that took place in the Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork (Ireland). This research funded by the RGS-IBG investigated the question of what to do with ageing onshore wind infrastructure in Italy. In particular the project explored how end of life decisions for onshore wind farms in Italy are being made and what influences them.

The conference represented an incredible opportunity to reflect on the many issues that are affecting end of life of wind infrastructure, such as financial and planning issues that are influencing decommissioning, repowering or life extension decisions and to explore opportunities for blade repurposing.

The footbridge constructed from re-purposing wind turbine blades in Cork.

The need for conferences such as this is clear. Attention on renewable energy infrastructure has predominantly focussed on the planning, design and construction of projects. This is often driven by the need to decarbonise the energy sector; yet we are overlooking the processes required for the management of end of life of the current portfolio of wind capacity that might be retiring around the world. The standard design lifetime of a wind turbine is predicted to be around 20 years according to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC-2005) standard. At the end of this predicted lifetime, it is expected that this infrastructure will require decommissioning resulting in a serious waste disposal issue. However, during the conference I argued that the timescale under which wind turbines approach the end of their operational lifetime is not uniform and depends on a number of other factors other than their projected life. Indeed, with the right conditions it is possible to repower wind turbines and extend their life.

A snapshot from my presentation.

The timing of end of life decisions and the consequent decisions regarding the future of existing turbine materials, and waste management, involves technical as well as analytical, financial and political questions. The ‘age’ of a wind turbine- and its degrading performance- is determined by a number of factors, with end-of-life decisions becoming an increasingly ad-hoc strategy for wind assets. These factors include:

  • technical: a good level of maintenance and site conditions are key in determining the performance and age of wind turbines;
  • economic and business models: operation costs, electricity markets, subsidy schemes and power purchase agreements will influence the economic evaluation of a wind site and its performance accelerating decision on life-extension and repowering;
  • legislative and regulatory: changes in government policy might facilitate end of life decision making to take advantage of technological advancement as repowered sites could support the achievement of government renewable energy targets;
  • planning and land use: simplifications to the planning and authorisation processes can positively influence repowering of some sites; operating licences and planning consents might be time-limited and there might be changes in the land designation making decommissioning the only option.
  • business environment: supportive governance and a drive towards the adoption of a circular economy in the wind sector plays an important role providing, for instance, potential responses to the challenge of wind turbine waste materials – in particular the question of what to do with the blades that currently cannot be recycled.

Some of these represented recurrent issues in the contributions at the conference and the discussion that followed. One of the main takeaways is that managing end of life of wind infrastructure projects represents many cross-sectoral challenges that require the sharing of best practice and active engagement from the main players from the renewable energy sector and beyond.

During the presentation, I shared an illustration that set out the different afterlife options for wind installations and had the opportunity to visit the footbridge constructed from re-purposing wind turbine blades in Cork.

Graphic Harvesting by Maia Thomas

A recording of my presentation can be accessed via the Conference link: Second Conference – Cork 2024 – Wind Value

Further information on the project can be accessed here: Is there an afterlife for wind installations in Italy? – Projects | UWE Bristol and here is a link to the paper: De Laurentis C and Windemer R (2024) When the turbines stop: Unveiling the factors shaping end-of-life decisions of ageing wind infrastructure in Italy. Energy Research and Social Science 113: 103536.

Ageing onshore wind infrastructures: researching end of life moments of wind energy infrastructure in Italy

Author Centre for Sustainable Planning and Environments | Posted on

by Carla De Laurentis

COP 27 concluded on the 20th of November 2022 and stressed how the unprecedented global energy crisis underlines the urgency to rapidly transform energy systems and the need to accelerate towards a clean and just transition to renewable energy. Seizing the opportunities of cheaper renewables will play a major role in the forthcoming decade and as countries move towards carbon neutrality goals, reaching these goals will require increased efforts in renewable energy development and deployment. While there are numerous benefits globally from the growth in renewable generation, a pertinent environmental and policy issue in the next decades- one that has been given only limited and recent attention- is the consideration of the end-of-life of low carbon infrastructure.  

Existing energy infrastructure, from conventional power generation plants to wind farms, have a technical and/or economic lifecycle predetermined by the gradual decreases of their performance or conversion efficiency over the infrastructure’s lifetime. At the end of this lifetime, it is expected that this infrastructure will contribute to a dramatic increase in waste generation. Most of the attention towards renewable energy infrastructure has predominantly focussed on the planning, design and construction of renewable energy projects driven by the need to decarbonise the energy sector, while overlooking the processes required for the management of the end of life and the decommissioning options of renewable infrastructure. Nevertheless, as waste arising from end-of-life renewable energy infrastructure is projected to grow over the next 10 years this is considered one of the biggest emerging environmental sustainability issues faced by countries globally.

To date, there have been limited number of studies that have focused on life extension, completed repowering, and or full decommissioning projects from which lessons can be learned. To address this knowledge gap, Dr Rebecca Windemer and I have joined forces- and research interests- to undertake a research project entitled ‘Is there an afterlife for wind installations in Italy?’. The project, funded by an Environmental and Sustainability Research Grant of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS-IBG), aims at investigating and understanding the different end of life moments, opportunities and challenges that are emerging in wind infrastructure in Italy. The Italian case offers a pertinent opportunity to investigate the supporting governance, environment, and business models of proposed solutions as approximately 50% of wind capacity is expected to reach end-of-life by 2030.

Rebecca and I outside the Ministry of Economic Development in Rome, Italy

The research is ongoing and has so far included a number of qualitative interviews and a short survey with wind farm developers, operators, renewable consultants, and policy makers. We had a really successful visit to Italy in October 2022 where we conducted fifteen interviews, which we are in the process of analysing.

Initial findings suggest that, while determining end of life options for wind infrastructure is undoubtedly a decision unique to each project, there are a number of factors that are also influencing such decisions. Life extension, repowering and full decommissioning of wind infrastructures are multifaceted issues affected by technical, legal, economic, financial, social and environmental challenges. There is great value in understanding how these challenges coalesce as it provides an opportunity to better understand how much waste will be generated in the future and the range of possible options for dealing with that waste.

For update on the research please contact us: Carla.Delaurentis@uwe.ac.uk; Rebecca.Windemer@uwe.ac.uk

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