Definition

Wind turbine life-cycle management relates to the life span of a wind turbine from its installation to eventual decommissioning and its parts being recycled, re-purposed or re-used.

Specifically: 

Efficient life-cycle management allows the turbine to maximize its potential during all stages of its life span. Besides technological advantages, efficient management through operation and maintenance also helps wind turbine operators to minimize extra costs, optimize their assets and increase their input into sustainable future. 

Short industry description and background to the topic

Every year from now, up to 20,000 turbines around the world will be entering the second half of their 20-year design life, already having long since fallen out of standard manufacturer warranties. The turbines now increasingly attracting the attention of O&M technicians are bigger, heavier, taller and much more complex than their predecessors. The rise in installations from 2009 was accompanied by significant shifts upwards in nameplate capacity, tower heights, rotor-blade lengths and operating reliability. This enabled wind development at sites previously considered economically unviable on the grounds of, among other things, low wind speeds and extreme temperatures, remote and hard-to-access locations, hilly and forested terrains.

This expansion reflects the rate of new wind-energy installations, which really began to pick up pace ten years ago. Nearly 80% of the 570GW worldwide capacity that was operating at the end of 2018 has been built since 2009, according to Windpower Intelligence, the data and research arm of Windpower Monthly.

The O&M sector’s challenges will grow alongside the expansion in the number of turbines it services, and their technical demands. The next generation of 5MW-plus onshore machines, with rotor diameters of at least 150 metres, mounted on 160-metre towers, pose a number of questions for future maintenance regimes. The cost and availability of cranes with sufficient lift and height capacity to replace, say, a gearbox, is a key priority for operators.