The blue ocean market for retired wind power has opened, and blockages need to be cleared before embracing dividends
Wind power equipment is retiring. How big is the market?
"This market is expanding, and we expect it to be about 150 billion yuan in the next 15 years." Wen Zongguo, director of the Circular Economy Industry Research Center of the School of Environment, Tsinghua University, told reporters.
With the expansion of the domestic existing wind power market, the expiration of the service life of old wind turbines, and the implementation of "replacing small with large" projects, more and more old wind turbines are facing the situation of being demolished, and many of them are still in good operation. Units in condition and contain great value. This opens up new business opportunities for companies in the circular economy field.
Huang Jieting, senior engineer of the General Institute of Hydropower and Water Conservancy Planning and Design, said at the Special Forum on "Circular Economy Helping the Wind Power Industry to Move towards a Zero Waste Future":"During the '14th Five-Year Plan' period, only 17 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) including Inner Mongolia were involved in wind power farms. The issue of service expiration, but during the '15th Five-Year Plan' period, all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) except Xizang and Sichuan will be involved."
The blue ocean market contains huge dividends, but before embracing dividends, we need to first clear the blockages in the development of the industry. Focusing on related issues, the reporter interviewed industry insiders.
Improve rules and standards to make disposal "evidence-based"
"The new Solid Waste Law (the newly revised Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste" in 2020) requires that information such as the type, quantity, flow direction, storage, utilization, and disposal of industrial solid waste generated be truthfully recorded to achieve traceability and inquirability of industrial solid waste. But how to trace it and inquire? Due to the lack of targeted detailed requirements, the goal of full traceability monitoring is difficult to achieve." Zhu Yansong, technical director of Beijing Jipeng Information Consulting Co., Ltd., told reporters.
In addition, he believes that there are currently systemic deficiencies in standards in this field, including safety assessment of wind turbines after their full service, performance testing of equipment to be retired, evaluation of residual value of retired equipment, and pollution prevention and control regulations such as waste blades. Thirdly, the recycling technology path is not clear, key technologies need to be broken through, and there are few technologies that can support industrialization. Finally, the implementation model is unclear, the process is imperfect, and the risks are unclear.
Wen Zongguo, director of the Circular Economy Industry Research Center of the School of Environment, Tsinghua University, introduced at the "Special Forum on Circular Economy Helping the Wind Power Industry towards a Zero Waste Future" recently organized by the Energy and Environment Professional Committee of China Energy Research Association: "From a technical perspective, the primary task for the recycling of retired wind power equipment is to comprehensively evaluate and formulate a scientific and reasonable recycling strategy. Through a detailed performance evaluation process, we can judge which equipment can be extended or upgraded, and which equipment is seriously damaged. It is no longer possible to continue to be used and needs to be disassembled to recycle its available resources. At present, relevant work carried out in China is still scarce, and there is an urgent need to explore how to accurately identify retired wind turbine units and quickly and low-cost assessments. Our research team is working on an innovative research to use satellite remote sensing technology to accurately locate and identify images, and at the same time, combine the service life and performance evaluation results of active crew to build a real-time updated dynamic database. The purpose is to provide solid data support and scientific basis for building a complete recycling system for retired wind turbines. In addition, from an economic perspective, the current research and development of most dismantling technologies and resource utilization is still in its infancy, large-scale production and application have not yet been achieved, and the improvement of production capacity will still take time."
It is reported that in January 2024, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment released the 2023 "National Advanced Pollution Prevention and Control Technology Catalog"(in the fields of solid waste and soil pollution prevention and control), including "Resource Utilization Technology of Waste Wind Power Blades". This will increase the promotion and application of relevant advanced technologies and boost the development of the industry.
Solve the problem of "misplacement of industries and offices" and strengthen regional coordination
The recycling of waste wind power equipment involves many issues, including responsible entities, composite material disposal issues, equipment remanufacturing issues, green demolition issues, and environmentally friendly treatment of batteries.
In addition, Wen Zongguo told reporters: "We must also thoroughly consider the challenges faced by retired wind turbines in terms of timing and spatial layout. It is predicted that by 2030, a large number of decommissioned wind power equipment will be highly concentrated in the three northern regions of Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Gansu and Liaoning. This highly concentrated distribution highlights a significant problem, that is, the retired fan blades and other related waste disposal industries in these areas are still underdeveloped. Specifically, areas with high output of retired fan blades have relatively weak disposal capabilities, resulting in obvious spatial mismatch. In addition, the issue of clarifying the subject of responsibility cannot be ignored. Currently, the units that generate waste are mainly major power groups and provincial energy groups, while most of the companies with recycling capabilities are wind power equipment manufacturers. This raises a key question: How should retired wind turbines and their components be properly disposed of after retirement? If the disposal chain is not smooth, it will undoubtedly become a major obstacle restricting the sustainable and healthy development of the entire wind power industry. Therefore, from a global perspective, we must regard the treatment of retired wind turbines as a complex and systematic project and conduct comprehensive and in-depth planning and consideration."
Zhu Yansong told reporters: "The phenomenon of non-concentration of waste sources from decommissioned wind power equipment also restricts the implementation of industrialization."
He introduced that the current upgrading and transformation of wind farms is a guiding policy and has not yet formed large-scale decommissioning. At the same time, the stock of old wind farms involves three factors: "region","time" and "property rights". Detailed research should be done before industrial layout. Taking the blade recycling industry in Hebei Province as an example, based on estimates from existing wind farms, from 2025 to 2040, the number of blades rolled off the production line in Zhangjiakou City will be 168,000 tons, Chengde City will be 69,000 tons, Handan City will be 3000 tons, and Baoding City will be 2000 tons. There are obvious regional differences. The industrialization layout should be scientifically investigated and rationally analyzed.
In this regard, Wen Zongguo believes that measures should be adapted to local conditions. "We found that there are many projects that need to be tailored based on local industries and needs. In some areas, retired wind power equipment is very scattered, and the scale of separate construction and disposal projects is very small. It is possible to explore the establishment of comprehensive industrial parks, and some regional key projects can be deployed at the national level for regional coordinated disposal."
Selling products is the key to opening the last mile
Yang Liantao, general manager of the northern region of China Energy Construction Group Equipment Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as China Energy Construction Group), told reporters: "At present, national standards for the recycling of retired wind and photovoltaic equipment have not yet been promulgated, and there are no mandatory laws and regulations. In the past, wind power equipment composite materials were mostly disposed of by incineration, stacking, and burial. At present, the participating companies are committed to high-value utilization, and their paths are blooming. However, due to factors such as high disposal costs, from the perspective of circular economy, corporate profits still face certain difficulties. At present, Longjin's energy-saving technology is a technical solution that can achieve profitability."
It is reported that China Energy Construction Group and Longjin Energy Saving Technology Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as Longjin Energy Saving) have cooperated in the recycling of retired fan blades. Projects such as the Sanao Nuclear Power Project in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, the Binhai Power Plant Project undertaken by China Energy Construction Group, Caofeidian Commercial Construction in Tangshan, and the Centralized Control Center undertaken by China Construction Eighth Engineering Group have adopted Longjin energy-saving building templates.
Zhang Guopeng, general manager of Longjin Energy Conservation, said that every 10,000 tons of retired fan blades, incineration and burial will reduce tens of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Making the blades into templates can reduce tree felling and fix carbon. As a green building material, Longjin template uses retired fan blades as raw material and can be recycled. It also has performance advantages compared with other types of templates it replaces.
In addition, against other building templates, the shared price of Longjin Energy Saving Building Templates is 1.7 yuan/sheet/time, the shared price of hollow plastic building templates that it can replace is 2.2 yuan/sheet/time, and the shared price of PVC sandwich building templates is 8.7 yuan/sheet/time, while wooden building templates consume a lot of wood.
"Based on the large amount of investment in the early stage, Longjin Energy Saving's retired fan blade recycling products are still at a loss, but they are expected to achieve profitability in the future." Zhang Guopeng said.
Yang Liantao told reporters: "With the arrival of the wave of decommissioning of new energy equipment, we have all seen the problem of opening up the last mile. Among them, application and market are the key. The layout of the new energy solid waste recycling industry by China Energy Construction Group Equipment Co., Ltd. is mainly in the Three North Regions and East China. The project can be replicated in multiple locations. Resource utilization products can be sold based on the huge construction market within China Energy Construction Group." This provides market demand for recycling product research and development companies like Longjin Energy Conservation.
In addition to the blade resource utilization market, the retirement of wind power equipment will bring broad market prospects to related fields, such as localized replacement markets.
Huang Jieting said: "With the rapid increase in the localization rate of wind power-related industries, major manufacturers of wind turbines whose service period has expired have gradually transitioned from foreign companies to domestic manufacturers. In 2025, most of the main engine manufacturers of wind turbines that have expired their service will be foreign companies, but by 2030, most of the main engine manufacturers of wind turbines that have expired their service will be domestic manufacturers, and the concentration of these manufacturers will be higher than that of the '14th Five-Year Plan' Plan '." In addition, the green demolition market, wind farm safety assessment market, cultivation testing and certification market, ecological restoration market, etc. will all provide a large number of opportunities for related companies.
