'We had to rehome 2,000 sand lizards': Why wind repowering isn't as easy as it seems

Around the world, there are thousands of small, old turbines hogging prime wind power real estate, so why hasn’t repowering taken off? A WindEurope panel discussed stupidities, sexy words and sand lizards in a quest to find out.

“Repowering is probably one of the most underused opportunities in Europe for the energy transition,” said Irina Sova, head of quality at LM Wind Power. “We have windy sites, we have ageing assets, we have better new technology today, but I think still the progress is so slow.”

Sova was speaking on a panel discussion about repowering at industry body WindEurope’s annual summit, which has this year pulled in a predicted 15,000 delegates to Copenhagen in Denmark.

WindEurope chief Giles Dickson has described repowering as a “no-brainer” and, like many others, says that governments are not doing enough to encourage it. This apparent government apathy is despite WindEurope data showing that repowering on average reduces the number of turbines in a wind farm by 25%, while more than tripling wind farm output.

Speaking on the panel this week, Luca Bragoli, chief regulatory and public affairs officer at Italian developer ERG, said that his experience on repowering projects on wind farms in Sicily was that they reduced the turbines often by half, while doubling the installed capacity and tripling the production.

“So the numbers are there, the fundamentals are there,” he said. What’s missing is some regulatory changes to get repowering “flying in the coming years.”

Alessandro Polito, team leader for renewable energy manufacturing and deployment at the European Commission, said that the “numbers are so clear and compelling it feels weird that we have to talk about repowering.”

Polito highlighted that the EU adopted a revised Renewable Energy Directive in 2023 with a new article on repowering. This included streamlined 12 months permitting for repowering projects – and six months if these projects are in special renewable energy acceleration areas.

But Polito noted that getting EU countries to adopt the new directive has not been easy. The EU Commission last year launched infringements against 26 EU member states – in other words all but one, Denmark.

Repowering: ‘Just a sexy word for a new project’

Despite the apparently overwhelming case for repowering projects, in reality, they are not as simple as they seem.

Indeed, Johan Terpstra, Western Europe chief for German turbine maker Enercon, said that repowering is “just a very sexy word for just doing a new greenfield project” as much of the same development work is required.

The only “big advantage” of repowering from a development perspective is that communities are less likely to object to these projects given they will have been accustomed to seeing turbines at the site for quite likely a few decades already.

Thomas Winkler, managing director at German renewables developer VSB, which was recently bought by TotalEnergies, said that repowering will inevitably be the “future of the industry” and make up a “substantial” part of development in coming years.

He highlighted the recent Elster Repowering project that VSB carried out in Germany where it replaced 50 old Enercon E-40/600kW turbines installed in the early 2000s and replaced them with 18 new Siemens Gamesa 6.6MW turbines.

That increased the installed capacity from 30MW to 119MW and shrunk the area the turbines need by a third. “That shows the beauty of repowering and why we have to become active there and why we have to push for doing it because we are occupying very resourceful sites with old turbines and outdated technology.”

Many of the old Enercon machines were not simply scrapped but rather sent to other countries and repurposed – including to power a gold mine in Australia.

However, despite this positive experience, Winkler said that, “if you ask me do you want to do a greenfield or a repowering project, I would go for the greenfield.”

This is because, despite perceptions otherwise, “repowering is a greenfield project with added difficulties” – for example, securing a permit not only for the new project but for decommissioning the old turbines.

For the Elster project, VSB has a condition in its permit that it had to collect and rehome sand lizards living in the project area. “So for six months, we went out there and collected 2,000 sand lizards,” he said, before relocating them to a new home where they are “blooming.”

“Only then could we start the decommissioning. So it makes the whole process much more challenging for us.”

They were also forced to fully take down the old wind farm before beginning work on the new one, despite the fact that there was nothing to stop both things from happening simultaneously. “It’s a stupidity.”

There are legitimate concerns around repowering projects, said Winkler. “The turbines are bigger. And you see them from further ahead.”

“But at least it should be easier to get a permit in an existing area where we are already active compared to a competing project where it's greenfield. That's where we should focus on and where we should really put our attention.”