Wind Farm decommissioning: A perspective on regulations and cost assessment in Italy and Sweden

Abstract: Due to a lack of knowledge and experience the best approach to deal with wind farm decommissioning has yet to be determined. To fill this void, this paper analyzed the current status in terms of regulations and cost, regarding the decommissioning in Italy and Sweden.   In order to make a comparison between these two countries, the available research papers and reports on the decommissioning cost assessment, removal methods and regulations were thoroughly investigated. Moreover, detailed estimated dismantling cost data was obtained from a wind farm in Italy.   The Italian cost data were compared with data collected in Sweden and along with them, the regulations and legislations related to how these costs have to be assessed as well as what developers are required to do regarding the decommissioning in the permit issuance were included.   The results of this research show that in decommissioning cost assessment both countries does not allow developers to include the possible revenues due to the scraps and to the recycling of components, although totally different methods are pursued.   Some kind of security to ensure that decommissioning occurs is required, normally a bond. The bond amount is a debt investment in which an investor loans money to an entity (corporate or governmental) that borrows the funds for a defined period of time at a fixed interest rate. In Italy the bond requirements are generally high and it has to be paid completely for the permit issuance. In order to develop significant projects, this kind of approach leads to discourage small investors.   On the contrary, in Sweden the current amount of 300.000 SEK per turbine according to the court precedent, the most widespread during the approval of the permit, is definitely low and represent a level playing field for every investor. Swedish regulations are also more flexible and only in the 28% of the cases studied between the years 2009 and 2012, the entire amount of the bond had to be assured before the installation. However, the malleability with regard to wind farms that do not need to provide any security, together with the low bond amount might endanger the decommissioning accomplishment.