DecomTools

Belgium puts offshore wind turbine decommissioning high on the agenda of stakeholders

23 December 2019 - Published by Jonas Nørgård Larsen
The expected lifetime of offshore wind turbines is about 20-25 years. This in turn means that the Belgian offshore wind sector - one of Europe's leading energy sectors - will also be part of the pioneers in the decommissioning of the offshore wind turbines. To that end, the regional development agency POM West-Flanders and the Port of Oostende supported by Sirris brought together companies and organisations in an interactive workshop to discuss all aspects concerning the decommissioning of the offshore wind turbines.

At the moment, no concrete policy, knowledge, experiences or supply chain regarding the dismantling of offshore wind farms is available in Belgium, not among the companies nor among the governments. 

As partner in the DecomTools project, POM West-Flanders contributes to the development of new concepts and tools to facilitate the sector and to formulate policy recommendations. In this manner, Belgium aims to play the pioneering role in the decommissioning market.

Messages
The workshop revealed several key messages. One was the clear need for preparation in time for the dismantling of offshore wind parks. This includes challenges within specific areas such as transport and logistics, recycling, labour market and environmental impact. 

Other important messages were the broad interest in the decommissioning topic and the need of the theme, the demand for cost-modeling, a clear legislative framework, the challenges regarding the treatment of components and the importance of local solutions. These challenges will arise in the pre-decommissioning, during the actual decommissioning and after the decommissioning phases.

Two of the challenges currently being tackled in the DecomTools project are a comprehensive market analysis covering all the North Sea region project partner countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, United Kingdom and Norway) and the development of a multi-criteria model to evaluate decommissioning processes on the basis of costs, time, CO2, risks, turbines, foundations, components, transport. 

Market Analysis: Decomissioning offshore wind is an overall opportunity

More information about the Belgian workshop? 
Contact Ben De Pauw, Project Manager at POM West-Flanders:
T +32 59 24 27 30 / ben.depauw@pomwvl.be