Large decommissioning cost burdens of offshore wind turbines across China’s ocean

Abstract

While the cost competitiveness of wind farms is critical for large-scale deployment, their end-of-life decommissioning costs are often overlooked. This is mainly due to a lack of methodology to capture their distribution and turbine-specific factors. Here, we develop an integrated approach that combines satellite images, machine learning, and a cost estimation model to capture essential features of each offshore wind turbine and quantify their potential decommissioning cost. We found that around 5,921 offshore wind turbines were installed by 2022, the decommissioning cost of which could reach as high as 11.1–32.5 billion RMB. Notably, supposing all embedded materials are recycled from turbin..