About This Course
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 Modules
This course is designed around five thematic modules, with one key theme covered each week.
- Understanding the End-of-Life Challenge
- Policy, Regulation and Certification
- Technical Strategies and Circularity Pathways
- Useful Life Estimation and Decision Support
- Business Models, Risk and Strategic Planning
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.
Course Staff
Athanasios Kolios
Athanasios Kolios is Professor and Head of Section in the Department of Wind and Energy Systems at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). He is an internationally recognised authority in risk management, reliability engineering, and offshore energy systems.
Justine Beauson
Justine Beauson is a Development Engineer in the Department of Wind and Energy Systems at DTU. She is known for her expertise in sustainability, blade circularity, and recyclability of wind turbine composites
Asger Bech Abrahamsen
Asger Abrahamsen is a Researcher at DTU Wind and Energy Systems, focusing on wind turbine lifetime assessment, end-of-life decision making, and regulatory compliance. His work involves the use of advanced modelling techniques and economic analysis to support sustainable asset management in the wind sector. He contributes to interdisciplinary research projects and is involved in teaching and mentoring students in the field of wind energy systems.
Nikolay Dimitrov
Nikolay Dimitrov is a Senior Scientist in the Department of Wind and Energy Systems at DTU. He is an expert in wind turbine reliability, structural health monitoring, and uncertainty quantification, with a focus on developing advanced digital twins and data-driven methodologies for wind energy applications. He has led and contributed to several international research projects on wind turbine lifetime assessment and digitalisation, and has published extensively in the fields of structural engineering and wind energy.
Moritz Johann Gräfe
Moritz Gräfe is a Researcher at DTU Wind and Energy Systems, specialising in data analytics, digital twins, and wind turbine operational optimisation. His work focuses on the integration of advanced data processing techniques, machine learning, and surrogate modelling to enhance wind farm performance and asset management. He is actively involved in collaborative research projects and contributes to the development of educational content in digitalisation and data-driven decision making for wind energy systems.
Matthias Stammler
Matthias Stammler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Wind and Energy Systems at DTU and a Senior Engineer with the Fraunhofer IWES. He is recognised for his expertise in wind turbine pitch bearing testing.
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