Abstract
The integration of renewables into power systems is a key transformation for mitigating climate change and reducing fossil-fuel dependence. Among the different resources, wind participation has become crucial in recent decades—both onshore and offshore wind power plants. However, assuming the useful life of the wind turbines at approximately 20 years, different solutions should be discussed to overcome the turbine’s aging problem. In the coming years, some countries within the wind sector will face the decision of partially or totally repowering or dismantling their turbines. This paper reviews different repowering strategies and contributions from a multifactorial perspective. A set of categories is defined by the authors and those multifactorial parameters are then classified according to such categories: technical, economic, environmental, social, and political. From each category, the most relevant factors to be considered for repowering decision-making purposes are identified and discussed. According to the specific literature, more than 90% of the reviewed contributions are focused on onshore wind power plant repowering actions. This percentage is in line with onshore and offshore wind generation units installed in recent decades. The reviewed studies show that Germany has a major number of contributions. Regarding offshore repowering strategies, all contributions propose a multifactorial analysis, in contrast to onshore repowering strategies where only 68% of the authors carry out a multifactorial analysis. The revised repowering methodologies and the categorization of factors can also be used by the repowering market, as a useful tool in the near future.
Highlights
In recent decades, power systems have been constructed to replace pollutant generation units with Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) [1]
This paper presents a review of different wind repowering strategies, identifying the most relevant categories to be considered for decision-making purposes
Onshore and offshore wind power plant repowering strategies are considered for this analysis, from a multi-category and uni-category perspective
Summary
Power systems have been constructed to replace pollutant generation units (mainly fossil fuels) with Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) [1]. The current energy transition is mostly focused on the depletion of fossil fuels and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions [2]. Wang et al [5] provide a comprehensive overview based on the pattern of mitigation targets set by global firms. These efforts must be reinforced to achieve the ambitious energy road-maps and environmental targets proposed by different agents, with initiatives mainly focused on RES integration into power systems [6,7,8]. Governments and policymakers in the EU region, for example, must put in place suitable economic and energy policies to promote a general development and integration of RESs towards achieving environmental sustainability of this region [9]
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