IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natene/v5y2020i12d10.1038_s41560-020-00717-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Multifaceted drivers for onshore wind energy repowering and their implications for energy transition

Author

Listed:
  • Lena Kitzing

    (DTU Technical University of Denmark)

  • Morten Kofoed Jensen

    (DTU Technical University of Denmark)

  • Thomas Telsnig

    (European Commission—Joint Research Centre)

  • Eric Lantz

    (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

Abstract

Wind energy is anticipated to become a backbone of the future energy system. Ageing wind turbine fleets, increasing land-use constraints and rising relevance of societal factors make the deployment of land-based (onshore) wind energy ever more complicated. Consequently, repowering is expected to become a rapidly growing point of focus for the wind industry. Here we propose a more holistic and socially informed project-level approach to analyse repowering activity that enables a more robust understanding of the process and potentials. We demonstrate that for wind pioneer in Denmark, only 67% of the capacity removed in repowering projects was related to the physical space needed for a new turbine. Other factors that drive repowering include regulation (for example, noise-related, 8–17%), development principles (for example, aesthetics, 7–20%) and political bargaining (4–13%). The recognition of repowering as a negotiated process between host communities and wind developers will probably be critical to unlock the full potential of wind energy in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Lena Kitzing & Morten Kofoed Jensen & Thomas Telsnig & Eric Lantz, 2020. "Multifaceted drivers for onshore wind energy repowering and their implications for energy transition," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 5(12), pages 1012-1021, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natene:v:5:y:2020:i:12:d:10.1038_s41560-020-00717-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41560-020-00717-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-020-00717-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41560-020-00717-1?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.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Windemer, Rebecca, 2023. "Acceptance should not be assumed. How the dynamics of social acceptance changes over time, impacting onshore wind repowering," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    2. Isabel C. Gil-García & Ana Fernández-Guillamón & M. Socorro García-Cascales & Angel Molina-García, 2021. "A Multi-Factorial Review of Repowering Wind Generation Strategies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-25, October.
    3. Unnewehr, Jan Frederick & Jalbout, Eddy & Jung, Christopher & Schindler, Dirk & Weidlich, Anke, 2021. "Getting more with less? Why repowering onshore wind farms does not always lead to more wind power generation – A German case study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 245-257.
    4. Julien Walzberg & Annika Eberle, 2023. "Modeling Systems’ Disruption and Social Acceptance—A Proof-of-Concept Leveraging Reinforcement Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-13, June.
    5. Anqi Zeng & Wu Chen & Kasper Dalgas Rasmussen & Xuehong Zhu & Maren Lundhaug & Daniel B. Müller & Juan Tan & Jakob K. Keiding & Litao Liu & Tao Dai & Anjian Wang & Gang Liu, 2022. "Battery technology and recycling alone will not save the electric mobility transition from future cobalt shortages," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    6. Jann Michael Weinand & Russell McKenna & Heidi Heinrichs & Michael Roth & Detlef Stolten & Wolf Fichtner, 2021. "Exploring the trilemma of cost-efficient, equitable and publicly acceptable onshore wind expansion planning," Papers 2106.15198, arXiv.org.
    7. Lopez, Anthony & Mai, Trieu & Lantz, Eric & Harrison-Atlas, Dylan & Williams, Travis & Maclaurin, Galen, 2021. "Land use and turbine technology influences on wind potential in the United States," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    8. Anne P. M. Velenturf, 2021. "A Framework and Baseline for the Integration of a Sustainable Circular Economy in Offshore Wind," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-41, September.
    9. 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).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:nat:natene:v:5:y:2020:i:12:d:10.1038_s41560-020-00717-1. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.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.