Focus on wind farm repowering sharpens in Europe with 78 GW nearing old age

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PA Consulting’s Alon Carmel, energy transition expert, comments on replacing aging wind farms in Europe with new turbines in an article by Camilla Naschert in S&P Global.

Commenting on this Alon says, “Repowering should be a no-brainer, because the oldest sites have good wind speeds and low environmental and social impacts, it will be the logical next step for the industry”.

He adds, “Investors are also set to benefit. Repowering enables them to significantly boost their returns by increasing energy yield and reducing operations and maintenance costs”.

Alon explains, “even without repowering, the offshore wind sector is grappling with supply chain constraints, especially around the availability of vessels large enough to install the new generation of mega-turbines. There will be a supply chain squeeze, and that will continue for a few years as the supply chain scales up”.

Adding, “repowering is unlikely to take away those resources from new projects, however. I actually think because of the timing it won't be so much of an issue".

Alon concludes, “Offshore wind farms will only start reaching their 20th anniversary en masse in about five years’ time, meaning the supply chain will have time to respond to the projected surge in demand”.