Edinburgh 16-17th September 2025
Political Landscape
I was unsure what to expect from the first British wind conference I have attended since the new Labour government took office. I mulled over this question on the drive to Edinburgh and guessed that a lot of UK wind developers, not seen for 14 years, would re-emerge with white nostrils and gold chains. Chris Stark, Ed Miliband (sorry about the meme Ed I couldn’t resist) and Mike Shanks have done good work through the onshore wind task force, which is already showing results. We are still another 12-18 months away from getting new projects into the ground, which takes us into year 3 or 4 of Labour’s tenure. Let’s hope they get back in and the UK citizens have a long memory. They might not be popular, and the trains are still shit, but they are professionals, and as such, hard to come by in today’s political circus.
Meat is back on the menu
It was a windy week in Edinburgh. I know that because all the trains stopped working. Half of all energy generation in the UK came from wind and 80% in Scotland. That’s bloody good going. We are still second in offshore wind only to the Chinese and now with a projected doubling of onshore capacity to 27GW by 2030 to boot. Vestas, Nordex and Enercon were in attendance (after having to ask for directions from Europe) touting their 5-7MW class wind turbines. They seem convinced there is a market here for these behemoths. Nordex are mopping up a lot of the capacity on offer with projects with RWE, Boralex and OnPath.
Scotland first
Scotland is still largely the focus of the development landscape, in company headquarters, projects, people and policy. Local supply chain content is being pushed and there are new mechanisms to support companies who want to get involved in these new projects. The industry acknowledges that certainty of pipeline, clustering of development zones, connection dates and consistency of policy would allow greater commitment of resource but it still appears to be a work in progress. Scotland’s pro-renewables and circular messaging is loud and clear though. Starting a renewables business, want an apprentice, want free money? There’s a grant for that.
Scotland continues to lead UK onshore wind development and generation
Repowering
The Repowering session was scheduled for a side room, and the demand was higher than for Oasis tickets. The high-vis brigade warned those standing in the aisles and sitting on laps that doing so was a fire hazard and they would have to be contented with the recording. At the same session five years ago, very few companies were involved, and attendance was low in number and engagement. I sat wedged in looking forward to seeing some broken bits, big machinery and rhetoric. As one of two people in attendance working in O&M I was expecting some ill-informed commentary from academics and out of touch political roles. When you are pessimist, it is a pleasure to be wrong.
Circularity at the centre
The Circularity Collective shared some good data on insight on not just residual wind turbine value but also on the breakdown of waste streams coming from a decommissioned wind turbine. Who doesn’t love a good graph? Charlotte Stamper spoke with clarity and authority from her time in EMR, and I felt seen. Even Reblade, who have built their name on blade recycling, have now acknowledged the importance of looking after other waste streams.
The powers that be have acknowledged the UK missed out on jobs from previous rounds of development, and that a concerted effort should be placed on the circular economy as we look to recover aging turbines lined up for repowering and decommissioning. While the cost of this is up for debate, decommissioning numbers were estimated between 100k for 2000s machines to 400k/WTG (Viking wind farm). Considering Sellafield are still fishing Henry Hoovers out of ponds this seems responsible.
Material forecast for renewables decommissioning. Graph credit: Zero Waste Scotland
Greening Jobs
Aberdeen is positioned at the centre of this as the launching point into the North Sea for rig workers as well as offshore wind. An estimated 220,000 people work in the North Sea O&G industry, directly and indirectly. There are currently 55,000 working in the wind industry today, 40,000 of whom are offshore. By 2040 this is expected to grow to 140,000. You can start to see the transition here both in employment, taxable income and alimony payments. Around 6000 electrical engineering graduates are produced every year in the UK, which is too few. The attractiveness of the industry to graduates has been called into question as well as some definition around the careers ladder. The electricity network is struggling to keep up with consenting demands and remains a big source of delays and inconsistency. How do you get started in wind? Why is an electrical generation-based industry filled with mechanical engineers? Where are all the control engineers, network engineers, technicians and design engineers going to come from? With AI threatening the confidence of career choices for graduates surely something requiring using your hands would be a sound choice? This is an acknowledged problem by the conference panel but not something that had a clear answer.
Good Engagement
Nadara were comfortable in sharing some company data on their soon to be decommissioned Benghlas WF (1999) and repowered to double the capacity with half the WTGs. If you are coming to a conference in strong numbers, come with a project to source for and come with something to say. If you are going to drop a load of money on sponsoring such an event, attend it, engage with the industry and bring some bloody engineers and decision makers. Nadara did exactly this. They have 200 plants totalling 4GW and have realised that decommissioning and repowering is going to be a lot of work and they are going to need some help. Their Nordtanks, Nordex N50s and other undesirables all need dealing with and they are taking a responsible attitude and approach. The repowering session was defined well by the phrase “responsible citizens”.
Kirkby Moor, first installed in 1992 is being decommissioned
“Very few wind farms have yet been built or even received planning permission. This relative scarcity of established wind farms enchances the need to hace such a scheme in operation to demonstrate the technology” – Kirkby Moor Inspector’s report 1992.
Life Extension Progress
ORE Catapult had done some relevant work with RWE on blade CMS, showing true positives on blade root crack detection as part of a fatigue study. A lot of good work in industry progression goes unnoticed and the people pioneering these innovations should take a bow, so I’ll name Cameron Caine, Alasdair Fulton and Tommy Crowden here for their work on life extension. The standards, engineering and best practice still need to be developed, in the absence of legislation, and this is quietly done and nurtured by a select few masochistic engineers in a world run by accountants.
Modern Classics
Just like cars, there are some wind turbines that, despite being over 20 years old, are still desirable. Vestas V52, V80, V90, Enercon E70 are wanted and particularly with full converters for G99 compliance. If you’ve got Gamesa, Nordex or GE from this era, you might get a deal on a second-hand one but good luck finding people, parts or control access to maintain them. The question was raised that a turbine pulled from service after 15 years in Germany will have more to give than the same turbine that’s seen British weather for 25 years. Whilst I understand the sentiment, I always loved a project car, so keep your service history, inspect regularly, do some welding and I think you could find a buyer.
Onshore WTG age UK. Graph credit: Circularity Collective
Refresh
If you want to life extend but are struggling with legacy parts, you could opt for a refresh. In-situ refurbishment, controller retrofit and preventative maintenance could all be options when trying to move your project beyond 20 or 25 years. The older Vestas machines for example still have parts available and a supply chain in place to repair and maintain these turbines beyond their design life.
Controller retrofit around the 15 year mark gives you good life extension data, better load management and understanding and legacy part reassurance.
Back in black
It was nice to be part of a community again. I think sometimes conferences do that better than exhibitions. The warm and fuzzy you get when you speak with likeminded individuals all taking to their altruistic tasks. There’s definitely a wave of new turbines coming over the next 3-4 years but beyond that is anyone’s guess. Both Reform and the Tories have made their feelings known about the cheapest form of generation. For now though, we’re making hay whilst the sun shines (or wind blows), and there’s a lot to be positive about.
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