| DigiWind

End-of-Life Management for Wind

Course Overview

The rapid growth of wind energy brings with it a pressing challenge: how to manage turbines and entire wind farms as they approach the end of their design life. With many assets now surpassing 20–25 years of operation, decisions around lifetime extension, repowering, or decommissioning have become critical. These choices require a careful balance of technical feasibility, financial performance, regulatory compliance, and sustainability.

Over five weeks, participants will build a comprehensive understanding of wind farm end-of-life management through a structured progression of methods, frameworks, and case perspectives.

Technical assessment: Learn how to evaluate structural integrity and remaining useful life using the latest techniques for condition monitoring, health assessment, and failure prediction.

Decision framework: Apply risk- and performance-based approaches to determine whether lifetime extension, repowering, or decommissioning creates the most value.

Economic tools: Gain practical skills with techno-economic models and life-cycle costing to compare alternative end-of-life scenarios under varying market and policy conditions.

Sustainability and circularity: Explore circular economy principles, including innovative strategies for component reuse, recycling, and material recovery—especially for blades and composite structures.

Policy and regulation: Situate technical and economic approaches within the broader regulatory landscape, understanding how evolving international standards and practices shape end-of-life strategies.

Course Highlights

Here are the key highlights of the program, designed to give you a clear picture of what sets this course apart and how it can strengthen your expertise in wind energy.

+ Delivered by DTU, the global leader in wind energy research and education, drawing on decades of experience and close collaboration with industry.
+ Teaching combines academic excellence, industry insights, and real-world case studies, ensuring participants gain both a solid theoretical foundation and practical, applicable skills.
+ DTU is at the forefront of shaping global best practices, leading IEA Wind Task 42 on lifetime extension and Task 45 on blade recycling, and setting the international agenda for end-of-life strategies.
+ Tailored for engineers, project developers, policymakers, and consultants who want to deepen their expertise in wind farm end-of-life management.

MAIN GOAL

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Learning Outcomes

After completion of this course, you will be able to:

+ Evaluate end-of-life options (lifetime extension, repowering, or decommissioning) using technical, economic, and environmental criteria.
+ Apply risk- and performance-based methodologies to assess structural integrity and remaining useful life of wind turbines.
+ Develop strategies for sustainable decommissioning and recycling, aligned with circular economy principles.
+ Understand policy, regulatory, and financial drivers influencing EoL decision-making across different markets.
+ Formulate integrated end-of-life management plans that balance stakeholder interests, sustainability targets, and cost-efficiency.
+ Assess the economic and ecological impacts of reuse versus recycling scenarios for wind turbine components.