Inspiration galore at decommissioning event

Last Wednesday, more than 150 participants and 100 organisations attended Decommissioning: Become A Part of It in Bluebridge. The event not only emphasised the importance of dismantling and recycling all components, but also inspired attendees to work on a vision for the dismantling of wind turbines.

Below you will find a review of the event as well as an overview of the most important takeaways and findings. Enjoy the read!

All photos © POM West-Vlaanderen / Blue Cluster

Gian Marco Gioffrè, sustainability advisor at WindEurope, kicked off with an overview of the current situation in offshore wind farm decommissioning in Europe. He discussed the industry's future challenges and opportunities.

Rebecca Verhaeghe, Project Manager Blue Energy at POM West-Vlaanderen, presented the Belgian decommissioning plans and discussed key milestones of the OWiDEX and Ready4Decom projects. She emphasized the importance of collaboration and explained that different elements, such as cost, ecology and recyclability, must be combined to arrive at a widely supported vision.

Bert Conings, senior Energy Transition engineer at SIRRIS, led an interactive session on various decommissioning scenarios. Thanks to input from the audience, this will help further refine the mathematical model developed.

After the coffee break, Gwen Dons of OVAM gave a presentation on the processing of the various material streams and discussed the requirements and obstacles.

Thomas Kerkhove, researcher at the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences,highlighted the importance of biodiversity within the scope of the decommissioning of offshore wind farms. 

Subsequently Rebecca Verhaeghe, Project Officer Blue Energy at POM West-Vlaanderen, discussed the plan of approach to boost public engagement and inform residents about the wind turbine decommissioning process

In the afternoon, the sector federations participated in a panel debate on the importance of decommissioning and recycling of wind farms. Bérénice Crabs, Maarten Dedeyne and Fawaz Al Bitar shared their insights and experiences. A major takeaway is the importance of repowering to meet the new energy target of 2.8 GW.

Several testimonials and success stories were discussed. Charles Göbbels (Reprocover) highlighted the transformation of composite wind turbine blades.

Carlos Barbosa (NEXANS) then went into more detail about innovative recycling methods for cables. He emphasised the importance of recycling in order to meet the high demand for raw materials.

Jonas Burm (Made) subsequently shared several inspiring stories of companies who have successfully launched recycled products on the market..

Later in the afternoon, there were several fascinating presentations by Sicoplan, Antro Group, ArcelorMittal and Mulimodaal.Vlaanderen.

Philippe Martens, Valorisation Manager at Blue Cluster, furthermore launced a business support call for companies who want to roll out activities in the decommissioning sector.

Are you involved in dismantling and/or recycling onshore or offshore wind turbines? Give your activities a boost with the new business support call by POM West-Vlaanderen and Blue Cluster. Check out the details and apply by 31 January 2025.

The day was concluded with a networking event and a partner plaza, where participants continued to talk, share experiences and explore new collaborations.

The event was a great success and demonstrated the need for collaboration and knowledge sharing in wind turbine decommissioning. Thanks to all speakers, participants and partners for their contribution to this valuable day.