When the turbines stop: Unveiling the factors shaping end-of-life decisions of ageing wind infrastructure in Italy

De Laurentis, Carla; Windemer, Rebecca

Abstract

Wind farms reaching their end of technical, or consent life, are increasing. One of the biggest emerging environmental sustainability issues faced by countries globally is what to do with this ageing infrastructure. This is an urgent issue across Europe and a challenge for countries such as Italy, where about 50 % of the country wind capacity is expected to reach end-of-life by 2030. As wind industry actors, governments and academics seek to identify the scale of this problem, this paper investigates the technical, legal, economic, financial, social and environmental challenges that are coalescing in determining when a turbine has reached the end of its productive lifetime. While the standard design lifetime of a turbine is 20–25 years, the timescale under which wind turbines approach the end of their operational lifetime is not uniform. Through an in-depth analysis of secondary documents and expert interviews, we investigate when end-of-life decisions are being undertaken and how these can influence the different options of waste management alternatives to landfill. The ‘age’ of the wind farm- and its degrading performance- is determined by a number of factors, with end-of-life decision becoming increasingly an ad-hoc strategy for wind assets, ultimately influencing the environmental impact of wind infrastructure.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 28, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Apr 24, 2024
• Publication Date: Jul 31, 2024
• Deposit Date: May 20, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: May 21, 2024
• Journal: Energy Research and Social Science
• Print ISSN: 2214-6296
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 113
• Article Number: 103536
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103536
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11921728
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: When the turbines stop: Unveiling the factors shaping end-of-life decisions of ageing wind infrastructure in Italy; Journal Title: Energy Research & Social Science; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2024.103536; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.