IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v17y2024i16p4191-d1461634.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Extending the Lifetime of Offshore Wind Turbines: Challenges and Opportunities

Author

Listed:
  • Mahmood Shafiee

    (School of Mechanical Engineering Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK)

Abstract

A significant number of first-generation offshore wind turbines (OWTs) have either reached or are approaching the end of their operational lifespan and need to be upgraded or replaced with more modern units. In response to this concern, governments, regulatory bodies and industries have initiated the development of effective end-of-life (EOL) management strategies for offshore wind infrastructure. Lifetime extension is a relatively new concept that has recently gained significant attention within the offshore wind energy community. Extending the service lifetime of OWTs can yield many benefits, such as reduced capital cost, increased return on investment (ROI), improved overall energy output, and reduced toxic gas emissions. Nevertheless, it is important to identify and prepare for the challenges that may limit the full exploitation of the potential for OWT lifetime extension projects. The objective of this paper is to present a detailed PESTLE analysis to evaluate the various political, economic, sociological, technological, legal, and environmental challenges that must be overcome to successfully implement lifetime extension projects in the offshore wind energy sector. We propose a decision framework for extending the lifetime of OWTs, involving the degradation mechanisms and failure modes of components, remaining useful life estimation processes, safety and structural integrity assessments, economic and environmental evaluations, and the selection of lifetime extension technologies among remanufacturing, retrofitting, and reconditioning. Finally, we outline some of the opportunities that lifetime extension can offer for the wind energy industry to foster a more circular and sustainable economy in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Mahmood Shafiee, 2024. "Extending the Lifetime of Offshore Wind Turbines: Challenges and Opportunities," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-33, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:16:p:4191-:d:1461634
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/16/4191/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/16/4191/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ramírez, Pedro A. Pérez & Utne, Ingrid Bouwer, 2015. "Use of dynamic Bayesian networks for life extension assessment of ageing systems," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 119-136.
    2. Shafiee, Mahmood & Sørensen, John Dalsgaard, 2019. "Maintenance optimization and inspection planning of wind energy assets: Models, methods and strategies," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    3. Emma L. Delaney & Paul G. Leahy & Jennifer M. McKinley & T. Russell Gentry & Angela J. Nagle & Jeffrey Elberling & Lawrence C. Bank, 2023. "Sustainability Implications of Current Approaches to End-of-Life of Wind Turbine Blades—A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-19, August.
    4. Yeter, B. & Garbatov, Y. & Guedes Soares, C., 2022. "Life-extension classification of offshore wind assets using unsupervised machine learning," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    5. Guo, Haitao & Watson, Simon & Tavner, Peter & Xiang, Jiangping, 2009. "Reliability analysis for wind turbines with incomplete failure data collected from after the date of initial installation," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 94(6), pages 1057-1063.
    6. 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.
    7. Topham, Eva & McMillan, David, 2017. "Sustainable decommissioning of an offshore wind farm," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(PB), pages 470-480.
    8. Rubert, T. & McMillan, D. & Niewczas, P., 2018. "A decision support tool to assist with lifetime extension of wind turbines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 423-433.
    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. Brooks, Sam & Mahmood, Minhal & Roy, Rajkumar & Manolesos, Marinos & Salonitis, Konstantinos, 2023. "Self-reconfiguration simulations of turbines to reduce uneven farm degradation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 1301-1314.
    2. Benjamin Pakenham & Anna Ermakova & Ali Mehmanparast, 2021. "A Review of Life Extension Strategies for Offshore Wind Farms Using Techno-Economic Assessments," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-23, March.
    3. Leite, Gustavo de Novaes Pires & Weschenfelder, Franciele & Farias, João Gabriel de & Kamal Ahmad, Muhammad, 2022. "Economic and sensitivity analysis on wind farm end-of-life strategies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    4. Szumilas-Kowalczyk, H. & Pevzner, N. & Giedych, R., 2020. "Long-term visual impacts of aging infrastructure: Challenges of decommissioning wind power infrastructure and a survey of alternative strategies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 550-560.
    5. Zhang, Ruixing & An, Liqiang & He, Lun & Yang, Xinmeng & Huang, Zenghao, 2024. "Reliability analysis and inverse optimization method for floating wind turbines driven by dual meta-models combining transient-steady responses," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    6. Yeter, B. & Garbatov, Y. & Guedes Soares, C., 2022. "Life-extension classification of offshore wind assets using unsupervised machine learning," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    7. Doukas, H. & Arsenopoulos, A. & Lazoglou, M. & Nikas, A. & Flamos, A., 2022. "Wind repowering: Unveiling a hidden asset," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    8. João Agra Neto & Mario Orestes Aguirre González & Rajiv Lucas Pereira de Castro & David Cassimiro de Melo & Kezauyn Miranda Aiquoc & Andressa Medeiros Santiso & Rafael Monteiro de Vasconcelos & Lucas , 2024. "Factors Influencing the Decision-Making Process at the End-of-Life Cycle of Onshore Wind Farms: A Systematic Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-42, February.
    9. Zhang, Mimi & Gaudoin, Olivier & Xie, Min, 2015. "Degradation-based maintenance decision using stochastic filtering for systems under imperfect maintenance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 245(2), pages 531-541.
    10. Deirdre O’Donnell & Jimmy Murphy & Vikram Pakrashi, 2020. "Damage Monitoring of a Catenary Moored Spar Platform for Renewable Energy Devices," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-22, July.
    11. Ruiz Muñoz, G.A. & Sørensen, J.D., 2020. "Probabilistic inspection planning of offshore welds subject to the transition from protected to corrosive environment," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    12. Judge, Frances & McAuliffe, Fiona Devoy & Sperstad, Iver Bakken & Chester, Rachel & Flannery, Brian & Lynch, Katie & Murphy, Jimmy, 2019. "A lifecycle financial analysis model for offshore wind farms," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 370-383.
    13. Irawan, Chandra Ade & Jones, Dylan & Hofman, Peter S. & Zhang, Lina, 2023. "Integrated strategic energy mix and energy generation planning with multiple sustainability criteria and hierarchical stakeholders," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 308(2), pages 864-883.
    14. Izquierdo, J. & Márquez, A. Crespo & Uribetxebarria, J. & Erguido, A., 2020. "On the importance of assessing the operational context impact on maintenance management for life cycle cost of wind energy projects," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 1100-1110.
    15. Francisco Haces-Fernandez, 2020. "GoWInD: Wind Energy Spatiotemporal Assessment and Characterization of End-of-Life Activities," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-20, November.
    16. Sajid, Zaman, 2021. "A dynamic risk assessment model to assess the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on the sustainability of the biomass supply chain: A case study of a U.S. biofuel industry," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    17. Wang, Anqi & Pei, Yan & Qian, Zheng & Zareipour, Hamidreza & Jing, Bo & An, Jiayi, 2022. "A two-stage anomaly decomposition scheme based on multi-variable correlation extraction for wind turbine fault detection and identification," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 321(C).
    18. Anne P. M. Velenturf & Phil Purnell, 2017. "Resource Recovery from Waste: Restoring the Balance between Resource Scarcity and Waste Overload," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-17, September.
    19. Vincenzo Basile & Francesca Loia & Nunzia Capobianco & Roberto Vona, 2023. "An ecosystems perspective on the reconversion of offshore platforms: Towards a multi‐level governance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1615-1631, July.
    20. Winkler, Lorenz & Kilic, Onur A. & Veldman, Jasper, 2022. "Collaboration in the offshore wind farm decommissioning supply chain," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).

    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:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:16:p:4191-:d:1461634. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.