Is there an afterlife for wind installations in Italy?

Project details

Project summary

Ageing onshore wind infrastructures are an emerging environmental sustainability issue globally and have international significance in relation to the solutions for existing infrastructure in the UK and beyond. Europe has approximately 34,000 onshore turbines coming to the end of their lifespan; Italy is among the pioneering European countries in wind power which results in a high proportion of ageing onshore wind capacity.
 
In Italy, 50% of onshore wind capacity is expected to reach end-of-life by 2030.

This project draws together expertise from human geography, planning and innovation studies. Dr Windemer brings the expertise of end-of-life decision-making for UK wind infrastructure, meanwhile, Dr De Laurentis provides expertise in energy transitions policy, sustainable practices including circular economy models and renewable energy in Italy.

This project investigated the question of what to do with ageing onshore wind infrastructure. This has waste management and economic implications as well as impacting decarbonisation goals. What is particularly pressing for industry and policy makers alike is not only to identify the scale of the potential environmental problem but also to understand when a turbine has reached the end of its productive lifetime and to consider the moments in the life of a wind turbine in which this waste stream will materialise. Drawing on pioneering research in Italy, the findings of this project provide a rounded understanding of end-of-life decision making and emerging solutions for ageing wind infrastructure.

Drawing from a review of academic and industry literature and expert interviews in Italy, this project identified how end-of-life decisions for onshore wind farms in Italy are being made and what influences them. The research highlighted a number of key technical, economic and regulatory factors that are influencing end-of-life decision making. This is valuable as it suggests there is a need to distinguish between the end of technical life and the operational and economic life of wind turbines – it is the latter that can also influence the waste stream.

Key outputs

The results of this study can be accessed following the links below:

• Is there an afterlife for wind installations in Italy: Lessons learnt from Italy (PDF) (short report version) 
• End-of-life decision making for onshore wind: Lessons from Italy (PDF) (full report version)

A peer-review paper for the research is accessible:

• De Laurentis C and Windemer R (2024) When the turbines stop: Unveiling the factors shaping end-of-life decisions of ageing wind infrastructure in Italy. Energy Research and Social Science 113: 103536.

We have produced two summary illustrations for the projects:

• Illustration 1: what influences decision making at the end of life (PDF)
• Illustration 2: Afterlife options for wind installations (PDF)

Project contact

For further information on the project, please contact Dr Carla De Laurentis (carla.delaurentis@uwe.ac.uk).