The Smartest Way Europe Is Expanding Wind Power
Repowering refers to the process of improving older renewable energy sites, especially wind farms, by swapping out outdated turbines or upgrading their parts with newer, more advanced technology. But does scrapping turbines before they’ve truly reached the end of their life really make sense?
Sub Count: 17,349
Script and voiceover: Luke Nijkamp
Editing: Sahib Tuasin
Sources:
https://www.rwe.com/en/press/rwe-renewables-europe-australia/2025-12-10-zero-waste-repowering/
Ahmed, F., Foley, A., Dowds, C., Johnston, B., & Al Kez, D. (2024). Assessing the engineering, environmental and economic aspects of repowering onshore wind energy. Energy, 301, 131759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2024.131759
Kitzing, L., Jensen, M. K., Telsnig, T., & Lantz, E. (2020). Multifaceted drivers for onshore wind energy repowering and their implications for energy transition. Nature Energy, 5(12), 1012–1021. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-00717-1
Bouzolin, D., Settelmaier, K., & Griffith, D. T. (2024). Design for repowering of wind farms: An initial framework. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2767, 082009. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2767/8/082009
Unnewehr, J. F., Jalbout, E., Jung, C., Schindler, D., & Weidlich, A. (2021). Getting more with less? Why repowering onshore wind farms does not always lead to more wind power generation: A German case study. Renewable Energy, 180, 245–257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2021.08.056
Timestamps:
0:00 Aging infrastructure
1:35 Why repower?
4:20 How repowering works
5:32 When to repower?
6:39 Muel Wind Farm
8:57 What happens to the old turbines?
9:33 Design for repowering
10:25 What needs to change
#repowering #windpower #renewableenergy
9 Comments
Very interesting 👍
Pls talk more about the resin recycling process.
If you upgrade existing turbines you can reuse the foundation. In offshore wind farms the turbines have a designed life span of 25 years while the foundations have one of 50. If you build new, you can at least safe money on the geological survey.
Hi Luke, could you do a video on why a bottom-up solutions are preferable to a top-down solution for making the energy transition sustainable and socially acceptable?
A study from 2025, published in the Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, analyzed the energy transition in Wolfhagen, a small town in northern Hesse, using data from the period 2012 to 2023.
It is one of the few long-term studies available, and its findings are remarkable:
Participatory governance was identified as ‘crucial’ to the successful implementation and continuation of the energy transition.
Public opinion on the importance of the local energy transition remained ‘extremely stable’ throughout the decade, even when the process faced inevitable challenges and slowdowns.
The study emphasizes the need for ‘continuous and flexible design and development’ rather than rigid, top-down planning.
Wolfhagen's approach combines municipal ownership (the municipal utilities) with citizen participation, creating institutional structures that are sustainable while maintaining social engagement.
Very interesting. Near here there's a hill (built out of WWII rubble) with a 25 year old wind turbine on top, that's actually a bit of a landmark for the area. It was apparently under threat a few years ago due to the licence expiring, but that was extended a few more years so is still in operation. It's now supposed to be replaced with one twice as large that will boost the power from 500KW to 4MW! Not bad.
This must be the most boring video about energy ever created.
good cover on the whole repowering space opportunities and involved topics. thanks !
Seems more of policy issue, there should be more new places allowed for new construction, and hence repowering should not be necessary.
Putting those blades in a shredder in the open air creates quite a lot of harmfull dust.