Europe’s oldest offshore wind turbines are now being dismantled having delivered clean energy since the early 1990s.

The wind turbines have converted offshore wind into clean power on land, but as the oldest ones are being decommissioned, new environmental problems are emerging. Over the next few years, we will have to dispose of up to 20,000 wind turbine blades, and no requirements are in place regarding recycling of the materials.

“In trying to use wind power to solve a major climate challenge, there is a risk that we have created new and even greater resource challenges,” said Pankaj Ravindra Gode.

He has recently completed a PhD at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management. His work is part of FME North Wind, and deals with how a circular economy can best be implemented in the offshore wind industry.

In a recent study, he and Associate Professor Øyvind Bjørgum demonstrate how the industry is opting out of sustainable, circular solutions such as recycling and reuse. Instead, they are choosing the easiest, cheapest and most environmentally harmful options – landfill and incineration.

“Landfills are the biggest problem because we end up throwing away enormous amounts of recyclable, reusable and valuable materials. Landfills sites also occupy large areas that become unusable for purposes such as agriculture.

The study is based on interviews with 21 stakeholders from across the entire value chain. It highlights factors that can drive the industry in a circular direction, what is hindering it, and measures that can help overcome those obstacles.

Wind turbines are usually decommissioned after 20–25 years, which is often the lifespan specified in the contracts. Some wind turbines can operate for longer, but this depends on regulations, environmental factors and maintenance. Approximately 85 per cent of the parts in a wind turbine can be recycled or reused. The exception, however, is the blades. They are made from composite materials making them both lightweight and extremely strong. The downside, however, is that their complex structure makes them difficult to recycle or reuse, and that is why they usually end up in landfill.

Shocking images from a municipal landfill site in Casper, Wyoming, USA triggered the alarm in 2020. The news and market data agency Bloomberg described the landfill site as a final resting place for wind turbine blades that “resemble bleached whale bones nestled against one another”.

The scenario was that tens of thousands of ageing onshore wind turbines were to be decommissioned within a few years. Most would end up in landfill sites because they could not be recycled.

It is now the turn of offshore wind turbines.
The world’s first offshore wind farm, Vindeby in Denmark, opened in 1991. It has previously been estimated that approximately 1800 offshore wind turbines will be decommissioned in Europe over the next four years. By 2040, this figure could rise to almost 20,000.

“The decommissioning and further processing of wind turbine blades is a real challenge,” said Marthe Michelsen Bottéri, communications manager at Havvind Norge.

She says that both the industry and research communities are actively working on this, referring to the company Gjenkraft. They have developed technology to recycle and reuse materials such as glass and carbon fibre. Equinor is also collaborating with companies working on circular solutions and the reuse of composite waste.

“Unfortunately, it is also the case that not all companies are striving for circular solutions,” added Michelsen Bottéri.

At present, the challenges primarily concern foreign and European wind farms. Norway’s first offshore wind farm, Hywind Tampen, only opened in 2023. The Sørlige Nordsjø II wind farm has been awarded, while Utsira Nord has been announced for tender. In addition, 20 other offshore wind areas are being assessed.

“We have set requirements in the prequalification criteria for Sørlige Nordsjø II and in the qualitative criteria for Utsira Nord that applicants must submit a project plan,” explained Henrik Hoel, senior communications advisor at the Norwegian Ministry of Energy.

“The plan must outline the proposed measures for waste management, as well as the potential for material recycling and reuse. By setting these requirements, we can help promote better solutions,” he added.

More and more offshore wind farms are being built around the world, and the turbines are getting larger. The next generation of rotors will have a diameter of 310 metres, which is as long as three football pitches. China is now building and testing offshore wind turbines with towers that are 200 metres high.

Several hundred tonnes of steel, composites, concrete, copper and aluminium are used to build a single turbine. In addition, rare earth metals such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium are required.

In trying to use wind power to solve major climate challenges, there is a risk that we have created new and even greater resource challenges.

When their service life is over, the wind turbine blades are transported ashore. Thousands of kilometres of cables worth billions of kroner are left abandoned and buried on the seabed. Not only does this put significant strain on the environment, we are also wasting large amounts of valuable materials.

Rare earth elements are used in mobile phones, hard drives, flat-screen devices, electric vehicles and wind turbines. Their scarcity has become a matter of global power politics, and a lot of these metals are not found in Europe. China has large reserves and a virtual monopoly on their trade.

One of the informants in the NTNU study asks what would happen if China stopped supplying us with these rare metals – and goes on to surmise:

“Our technology would stop working. This is a serious geopolitical problem.”

“One of the major obstacles to the circular economy is that legislation varies from country to country,” emphasized one of the stakeholders in the NTNU study.

Landfilling of turbine blades is prohibited in Germany, Finland, Austria and the Netherlands. Some companies get around this obstacle by transporting decommissioned wind turbine blades to countries where they can be buried. The United Kingdom and France have some of the highest concentrations of landfills in Europe.

An EU ban is not in place – yet. A Norwegian ban on landfilling and incineration is not on the Ministry of Energy’s agenda.

“The industry is international, and recycling and reuse technologies are mainly developed in a European and global market. Norway largely follows the same waste management regulations as the EU. It is therefore most natural that this challenge is primarily addressed through a common European regulatory framework,” explained Hoel.

NTNU researcher Pankaj Ravindra Gode believes that an EU ban could prevent actors from exporting the problems.

“It would create a level playing field, where the rules are the same for everyone and no one can circumvent the system,” added Hoel.

How green and sustainable is wind power really, when thousands of tonnes of unmanageable waste could be landfilled or incinerated every year going forwards?

“Onshore and offshore wind power is considered a green energy source because it has very low greenhouse gas emissions during operation and a significantly lower overall climate footprint than the fossil-based alternatives. At the same time, it is important to continue working on improving resource use and waste management,” said Hoel from the Ministry of Energy.

Marthe Michelsen Bottéri at Havvind Norge stresses that an important point for the industry is that much of the climate benefits come from the emissions reductions that renewable energy provides over several decades.

“At the same time, the industry must of course manage material streams responsibly throughout the entire life cycle,” she said.