IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v168y2022ics0301421522003901.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hidden repowering potential of non-repowerable onshore wind sites in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Stetter, Chris
  • Wielert, Henrik
  • Breitner, Michael H.

Abstract

Feed-in tariff funding will cease by 2025 for more than 70% of the currently installed onshore wind turbines in Germany. For many wind turbines, the feasibility of repowering from a regulatory point of view is unknown; that is, a complete replacement of the old wind turbines with new, modern, and more efficient models. In Germany, restrictive regulations regarding the required minimum distances of wind turbines from residential and other protected areas may impede repowering, thereby rendering a site non-repowerable. Many of these wind turbine sites are well-established in terms of their acceptance by the local population. Our analysis shows that the potential of non-repowerable but well-established locations with more efficient technology at the same height is almost twice that of the sites qualified for repowering via higher wind turbines. The latest legislation of the German federal government prescribes minimum distances of 1,000 m between a wind turbine and the nearest residential buildings. This will slow down the expansion of onshore wind energy in Germany and decrease its contribution to climate neutrality. This study quantifies the nationwide effects of restrictive legislative minimum distance regulations on repowering potential by means of a developed geographic information system that utilizes highly detailed settlement structures.

Suggested Citation

  • Stetter, Chris & Wielert, Henrik & Breitner, Michael H., 2022. "Hidden repowering potential of non-repowerable onshore wind sites in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:168:y:2022:i:c:s0301421522003901
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113168
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421522003901
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113168?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jan Stede & Nils May, 2020. "Way Off: The Effect of Minimum Distance Regulation on the Deployment of Wind Power," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1867, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    2. Chris Stetter & Maximilian Heumann & Martin Westbomke & Malte Stonis & Michael H. Breitner, 2020. "A Real Options Approach to Determine the Optimal Choice Between Lifetime Extension and Repowering of Wind Turbines," Operations Research Proceedings, in: Janis S. Neufeld & Udo Buscher & Rainer Lasch & Dominik Möst & Jörn Schönberger (ed.), Operations Research Proceedings 2019, pages 291-297, Springer.
    3. González-Aparicio, I. & Monforti, F. & Volker, P. & Zucker, A. & Careri, F. & Huld, T. & Badger, J., 2017. "Simulating European wind power generation applying statistical downscaling to reanalysis data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 155-168.
    4. Grashof, Katherina & Berkhout, Volker & Cernusko, Robert & Pfennig, Maximilian, 2020. "Long on promises, short on delivery? Insights from the first two years of onshore wind auctions in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    5. Staffell, Iain & Pfenninger, Stefan, 2016. "Using bias-corrected reanalysis to simulate current and future wind power output," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1224-1239.
    6. Staffell, Iain & Green, Richard, 2014. "How does wind farm performance decline with age?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 775-786.
    7. Stetter, Chris & Piel, Jan-Hendrik & Hamann, Julian F.H. & Breitner, Michael H., 2020. "Competitive and risk-adequate auction bids for onshore wind projects in Germany," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gualtieri, G., 2022. "Analysing the uncertainties of reanalysis data used for wind resource assessment: A critical review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Kies, Alexander & Schyska, Bruno U. & Bilousova, Mariia & El Sayed, Omar & Jurasz, Jakub & Stoecker, Horst, 2021. "Critical review of renewable generation datasets and their implications for European power system models," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    3. Russell McKenna & Stefan Pfenninger & Heidi Heinrichs & Johannes Schmidt & Iain Staffell & Katharina Gruber & Andrea N. Hahmann & Malte Jansen & Michael Klingler & Natascha Landwehr & Xiaoli Guo Lars', 2021. "Reviewing methods and assumptions for high-resolution large-scale onshore wind energy potential assessments," Papers 2103.09781, arXiv.org.
    4. McKenna, Russell & Pfenninger, Stefan & Heinrichs, Heidi & Schmidt, Johannes & Staffell, Iain & Bauer, Christian & Gruber, Katharina & Hahmann, Andrea N. & Jansen, Malte & Klingler, Michael & Landwehr, 2022. "High-resolution large-scale onshore wind energy assessments: A review of potential definitions, methodologies and future research needs," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 659-684.
    5. Murcia, Juan Pablo & Koivisto, Matti Juhani & Luzia, Graziela & Olsen, Bjarke T. & Hahmann, Andrea N. & Sørensen, Poul Ejnar & Als, Magnus, 2022. "Validation of European-scale simulated wind speed and wind generation time series," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    6. Hayes, Liam & Stocks, Matthew & Blakers, Andrew, 2021. "Accurate long-term power generation model for offshore wind farms in Europe using ERA5 reanalysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    7. António Couto & Paula Costa & Teresa Simões, 2021. "Identification of Extreme Wind Events Using a Weather Type Classification," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-16, July.
    8. Hu, Jing & Harmsen, Robert & Crijns-Graus, Wina & Worrell, Ernst, 2019. "Geographical optimization of variable renewable energy capacity in China using modern portfolio theory," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 1-1.
    9. Matti Koivisto & Kaushik Das & Feng Guo & Poul Sørensen & Edgar Nuño & Nicolaos Cutululis & Petr Maule, 2019. "Using time series simulation tools for assessing the effects of variable renewable energy generation on power and energy systems," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(3), May.
    10. Becker, Raik & Thrän, Daniela, 2017. "Completion of wind turbine data sets for wind integration studies applying random forests and k-nearest neighbors," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 252-262.
    11. Bosch, Jonathan & Staffell, Iain & Hawkes, Adam D., 2017. "Temporally-explicit and spatially-resolved global onshore wind energy potentials," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 207-217.
    12. Luis M. Abadie & Nestor Goicoechea, 2021. "Old Wind Farm Life Extension vs. Full Repowering: A Review of Economic Issues and a Stochastic Application for Spain," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-24, June.
    13. Bosch, Jonathan & Staffell, Iain & Hawkes, Adam D., 2019. "Global levelised cost of electricity from offshore wind," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    14. Rabbani, R. & Zeeshan, M., 2020. "Exploring the suitability of MERRA-2 reanalysis data for wind energy estimation, analysis of wind characteristics and energy potential assessment for selected sites in Pakistan," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 1240-1251.
    15. Reinhold Lehneis & Daniela Thrän, 2023. "Temporally and Spatially Resolved Simulation of the Wind Power Generation in Germany," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-16, April.
    16. Đukan, Mak & Kitzing, Lena, 2023. "A bigger bang for the buck: The impact of risk reduction on renewable energy support payments in Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    17. Seljom, Pernille & Kvalbein, Lisa & Hellemo, Lars & Kaut, Michal & Ortiz, Miguel Muñoz, 2021. "Stochastic modelling of variable renewables in long-term energy models: Dataset, scenario generation & quality of results," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    18. Bianchi, Emilio & Guozden, Tomás & Kozulj, Roberto, 2022. "Assessing low frequency variations in solar and wind power and their climatic teleconnections," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 560-571.
    19. del Río, Pablo & Kiefer, Christoph P., 2023. "Academic research on renewable electricity auctions: Taking stock and looking forward," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    20. Iain Staffell & Stefan Pfenninger & Nathan Johnson, 2023. "A global model of hourly space heating and cooling demand at multiple spatial scales," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 8(12), pages 1328-1344, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:168:y:2022:i:c:s0301421522003901. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.