Circular Wind Securing the energy transition through circularity

Introduction

Reaching the Paris Agreement’s goals of limiting the world temperature to 1.5°C and achieving net zero emissions by 2050 will require a deep transformation of our energy systems. In the European Union alone, to reach the goal of at least 42,5% share of renewables in the overall energy consumption by 2030², over 30GW of wind energy capacity should be added annually³. Ambitious estimations foresee that wind energy can provide between 54-58% of electricity production by 2050⁴.

However, adding this capacity has already been challenging considering supply chain disruptions, increased costs and competition with non-EU markets. Higher costs led to cancellation of auctioned projects, such as Vattenfall’s Norfork Boreas 1.4-GW offshore wind project in the UK due to risen costs to 40%⁵.

At the same time, the deployment of clean technologies to meet energy and climate goals has put additional pressure on resources, especially critical raw materials, for which demand is expected to increase by 3,5 times globally until 2030⁶. These requirements create serious challenges for reaching a just energy transition.

Moving from a linear to a circular approach to resource use can help to overcome these challenges. Implementing measures of reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing wind energy infrastructure can:

Reduce environmental pressure.

Decrease external dependencies.

Increase the security of supply.

Provide societal benefits.

Boost competitiveness and innovation.