The offshore wind sector must do more to embed sustainable practices – particularly when it comes to decommissioning, according to a leading academic.
Speaking during a session on sustainability during the Floating Offshore Wind 2022 conference in Aberdeen last week, Anne Velenturf, a senior research fellow in circular economy from the University of Leeds, took aim at current oil decommissioning practises and pressed the need for “proper decommissioning guidance” for the wind sector.
“Current decommissioning guidance for offshore wind is based on oil and gas decommissioning guidance, which is terrible, frankly,” she said, particularly when it came to recycling targets.
“Let me clarify that despite recycling numbers being promoted and marketed by the oil and gas industry…about half the materials, we have no idea where they go.
“They are never reported. We do not know where they are. They’re probably somewhere in the sea.”
Exact numbers are difficult to gauge, however Ms Velenturf’s assessment chimes with research from Heriot Watt University which criticised industry claims of meeting 95% recycling targets – figures it described as “misleading” and a “myth”.
Instead, she said lessons should be learned from this to push the sector to do better.
“What we’ve learned from oil and gas decommissioning is that you have to start early, preferably at the design stage of your infrastructure,” she recommended.
“Keep records of what you are using, and equally important, when you get to the end of use, share those records with the person who’s going to remove your infrastructure. It’s very helpful if they know what they actually are encountering there.”
She also advised project designers to look at reuse opportunities for components prior to the closure of a wind farm.
“Once the wind farm is closed, everything in there is a waste and it will be far more difficult to reuse them, because then you have to get a waste back into operation. It’s more difficult than actually doing it proactively,” she warned.
Lastly, she said developers should ensure their decommissioning guidance covers all circular economy strategies – including waste prevention and re-use – and not just recycling, again citing the examples of oil and gas.
“It’s not good enough. You are a sustainable industry. You have to improve, but you know, building on oil and gas – learn from that,” she told delegates.
“You can prevent waste, you can reuse parts…so do it. It’s a business opportunity. It will make you better.”
© Supplied by Ardersier PortShort supplies
However, supply chain representatives suggested they were already heeding the call.
Chief executive Steve Regan spoke of the potential of his port at Ardersier, near Inverness, which he hopes to transform into Europe’s first fully circular energy transition site.
“The technology now exists to make finished steel products out of 100% recycled material – from tin cans and shopping trollies to oil rigs,” he told delegates during the panel session.
Far from being just carbon steel, he also pointed to the “thousands of tonnes of precious metals” on board structures such as old oil platforms.
“For me the first activity is to make sure we harvest these precious metals -turn them into a constituent component and put them back into reprocessing, rather than just throwing them in a big melting pot,” he added.
“Just one small step I think would generate a lot of material which is in very short supply.”
That will be even more important as the sector looks to shore up materials in the face of increasing costs and hard-pressed supply chains, particularly when it comes to things like steel and concrete – both essential to the floating wind sector.
Panel chairwoman Charlotte Stamper of European Metal Recycling noted that this year was the first time she had observed offshore developers begin to worry about sourcing raw materials.
Asked what else could be done to embed better practices in the sector, Ms Velenturf said “a mixture of carrots and sticks” was likely to be the right approach.
“I would say one of the most important drivers will be government setting ambitious targets for the wind industry and actually across all of the industries, for example, ambitious targets on recycled content.”
“This could be part of contracts for difference [CfDs]. It could be part of something else. Arguably it’s already part of extended producer responsibility, but government setting ambitious targets will definitely help.”
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