Environmental impacts of decommissioning: Onshore versus offshore wind farms

Hall, R.J.; João, Elsa; Knapp, Charles W.

doi:10.1016/j.eiar.2020.106404

Cited by 34 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Our final vignette further demonstrates that selectivity and partiality is inherent to the pursuit of reversibility 'in the field' through exploring treatment of these questions in decommissioning policy and practice. There is little consistent practice for managing decommissioning for onshore wind farms in the UK [105,109]; a similar situation prevails elsewhere in Europe [110] and in the U.S. [12,54]. As this vignette will show, the treatment of reversibility issues within decommissioning practicewhat it covers and its limitationsalso reveals the connections between (ir)reversibility and concerns for environmental value and future generations, particularly deliberation of whether some irreversible effects should be a legitimate public concern.…”

Section: Decommissioning and (Partial) Reversibilitymentioning

confidence: 97%

Are the impacts of wind energy reversible? Critically reviewing the research literature, the governance challenges and presenting an agenda for social science

Windemer

Cowell

2021

Energy Research & Social Science

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Section: Decommissioning and (Partial) Reversibilitymentioning

confidence: 97%

Are the impacts of wind energy reversible? Critically reviewing the research literature, the governance challenges and presenting an agenda for social science

Windemer

Cowell

2021

Energy Research & Social Science

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“…In total, 24 studies investigated more than one pressure, and only about half of them dealt with three or more pressures (one study investigated four pressures and three studies five pressures [30][31][32] ). Among them, three were literature reviews 30,31,33 . Only 23 studies analysed two or more ecosystem elements simultaneously (most of them being review articles, e.g., 29,30,33 ).…”

Section: Scientific Knowledge On Environmental Impacts Of Wind Energy...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reviewing the ecological impacts of offshore wind farms

et al. 2022

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Offshore wind energy is widely regarded as one of the most credible sources for increasing renewable energy production towards a resilient and decarbonised energy supply. However, current expectations for the expansion of energy production from offshore wind may lead to significant environmental impacts. Assessing ecological risks to marine ecosystems from electricity production from wind is both timely and vital. It will support the adoption of management measures that minimize impacts and the environmental sustainability of the offshore wind energy sector.

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“…Offshore wind decommissioning is a growing subject area, with 112 publications (search in Table 3), of which 86 hold direct or some relevance to offshore wind (Figure 3). Subjects covered include estimating the scale of the decommissioning challenges (aided by articles such as [60,261,262]); cost models and decommissioning scenarios (e.g., [171,200,204,[263][264][265][266][267][268][269][270][271][272][273]); decommissioning processes; challenges and solutions [8,141,177,274,275]; vessels and port facilities (e.g., [276]); end-of-use scenarios (e.g., [195,277,278]); risk, durability and the remaining life estimates (e.g., [279][280][281]); alternative joints to ease decommissioning [282]; environmental impacts (e.g., [283][284][285][286]); and calls for better policy, guidelines and certification (e.g., [8,[287][288][289]). Alternative searches (Table 3) to explore further include removal (72 publications), extraction (187) and dismantling …”

Section: Decommissioningmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Framework and Baseline for the Integration of a Sustainable Circular Economy in Offshore Wind

Velenturf

2021

Energies

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Circular economy and renewable energy infrastructure such as offshore wind farms are often assumed to be developed in synergy as part of sustainable transitions. Offshore wind is among the preferred technologies for low-carbon energy. Deployment is forecast to accelerate over ten times faster than onshore wind between 2021 and 2025, while the first generation of offshore wind turbines is about to be decommissioned. However, the growing scale of offshore wind brings new sustainability challenges. Many of the challenges are circular economy-related, such as increasing resource exploitation and competition and underdeveloped end-of-use solutions for decommissioned components and materials. However, circular economy is not yet commonly and systematically applied to offshore wind. Circular economy is a whole system approach aiming to make better use of products, components and materials throughout their consecutive lifecycles. The purpose of this study is to enable the integration of a sustainable circular economy into the design, development, operation and end-of-use management of offshore wind infrastructure. This will require a holistic overview of potential circular economy strategies that apply to offshore wind, because focus on no, or a subset of, circular solutions would open the sector to the risk of unintended consequences, such as replacing carbon impacts with water pollution, and short-term private cost savings with long-term bills for taxpayers. This study starts with a systematic review of circular economy and wind literature as a basis for the coproduction of a framework to embed a sustainable circular economy throughout the lifecycle of offshore wind energy infrastructure, resulting in eighteen strategies: design for circular economy, data and information, recertification, dematerialisation, waste prevention, modularisation, maintenance and repair, reuse and repurpose, refurbish and remanufacturing, lifetime extension, repowering, decommissioning, site recovery, disassembly, recycling, energy recovery, landfill and re-mining. An initial baseline review for each strategy is included. The application and transferability of the framework to other energy sectors, such as oil and gas and onshore wind, are discussed. This article concludes with an agenda for research and innovation and actions to take by industry and government.

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Environmental impacts of decommissioning: Onshore versus offshore wind farms

Cited by 34 publications

References 24 publications

Are the impacts of wind energy reversible? Critically reviewing the research literature, the governance challenges and presenting an agenda for social science

Are the impacts of wind energy reversible? Critically reviewing the research literature, the governance challenges and presenting an agenda for social science

Reviewing the ecological impacts of offshore wind farms

A Framework and Baseline for the Integration of a Sustainable Circular Economy in Offshore Wind

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