Post EEG Strategy

What happens with wind turbines that run out of EEG subsidy, but still have a remaining technical life?

Many old turbines exceed their planned technical life of 20 years due to conservative design, changes in design guidelines and lower average wind speeds and turbulence. However, technical lifetime is only one part of the equation. When these turbines outlive their EEG subsidy, operators and owners are usually left with rising maintenance costs and lower feed in tariffs. In this case, repowering is not the only option.

Changes in conservative design guidelines, lower wind speeds and turbine down time can result in potential for a technical lifetime extension.

As one of the largest operators in the EU, our customer launched a project to research possible strategies for managing post EEG turbines. A strategic curtailing algorithm was developed to increase the profitability of each produced kWh, and further extend the number of operating years of the turbine.