Collaboration in the offshore wind farm decommissioning supply chain

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore how actors in the offshore wind farm decommissioning supply chain collaborate to manage collective uncertainties—external supply chain uncertainties shared among several supply chain actors. Semi-structured expert interviews with ten companies active in five different segments of the decommissioning supply chain in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium are conducted. Businesses currently utilize collaborative communication, information sharing, and joint knowledge creation to mitigate the adverse effects of collective uncertainties. However, collaboration is severely impeded by the presence of barriers such as intellectual property or the lack of resources. Nevertheless, opportunities to lower these hurdles and improve collaboration across the supply chain exist. This study contributes to the literature on collective uncertainties and supply chain collaboration in offshore wind decommissioning. Additionally, this paper provides practitioner-oriented insights to leverage supply chain collaboration in dealing with the decommissioning challenge.