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HSE


Offshore rigs and turbines have already affected marine life, attracting potential invasive species of sea snails, algae and plants.


sites, Knights concedes, means they’re always “a double-edged sword” – is it really worth disrupting nature two times over?


Whatever you believe, the persistence of OSPAR 98/3 means that any attempt at thoughtful discussion is immediately quashed. At least, this is true where that particular rule is enforced. For while northern Europeans are obliged to decommission turbines from generator to blade, their US cousins are far less constrained.


19GW


New installed wind capacity in Europe in 2022.


WindEurope


336 million


The amount in metric tons of CO2 emissions avoided by wind energy each year – the equivalent of 76 million cars.


American Clean Power Association


30


More to the point, Schratzberger explains that experience shows that a more holistic approach to turbine afterlife can be successful. As she puts it: “In some parts of the world, particularly in the US, alternative strategies such as allowing relocation of infrastructural components – generally jackets – to create artificial reefs, or repurposing them in other ways, have been allowed often with considerable success.”


Off the coast of California, for instance, the decommissioned Platform Holly oil rig plays host to fish, crabs and starfish. Other exhausted platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, have become popular diving and fishing spots. Once again borrowing from the petroleum sector, meanwhile, there’s little reason wind turbines couldn’t enjoy a similar legacy. Not that gentle neglect is the only option here either. With timber an increasingly popular construction material for new turbines – specialist laminated wood manufacturer Modvion partners with industry giants like Vestas – we could theoretically see turbines disintegrate almost entirely by natural means.


At the other end of the spectrum, Knights is an enthusiastic supporter of renovating older turbines, giving them a second lease of life, and neatly putting off decommissioning worries a while longer. There are signs, in fact, that this is happening already. As far back as 2018, for instance, a Danish company successfully replaced five turbines near the Swedish


coastline, doubling the site’s energy output even as the old towers and foundations were preserved.


On a mission There’s no single answer to offshore decommissioning, and where you come down is almost a matter of philosophy. Pointing out that the planet is losing biodiversity at an unprecedented rate, largely thanks to climate change, Knights argues that “we’re going to trade off” the health of the planet as a whole with that of those of specific ecosystems. By the time you factor in the varying costs and benefits of decommissioning turbines themselves, you end up with a field that’s deeply complex – and one with the potential to upset someone or other. As Schratzberger says: “A decommissioning strategy that benefits some stakeholders may be detrimental to others, for instance, a strategy that benefits fishermen may undermine some conservation objectives.” Yet, if just exactly how turbines end their days seems destined to remain disputed, industry insiders are at least becoming more conscious of the problem. In 2021, the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, a British industry group, announced a five-year programme that brought together academics, manufacturers and policymakers to reflect on how decommissioning could be streamlined. That’s shadowed by a flurry of other research, not least by Knights and his colleagues, which altogether is contributing to a sector due to enjoy CAGR of 13.46% through 2026. Even the infamous OSPAR 98/3 ruling could eventually disappear, with a paper from 2018 by the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, finding that over 90% of the industry experts surveyed advocate a case-by-case approach to offshore structure removal – rather than the blanket policy currently in force. All the while, thousands of turbines continue to age, even as what happens to them remains decidedly unclear. ●


World Wind Technology / www.worldwind-technology.com


Sue Burton Photography/Shutterstock.com


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