REMANUFACTURING IN WIND POWER: A MULTI CRITERIA DECISION ANALYSIS APPROACH

Abstract: Due to the rapid growth of the wind energy market over the last decade, the future of the industry will consequently see the dismantling of many wind turbines, both due to wind turbines reaching the end of their service life and to make way for surpassing technology, leaving behind a large amount of material that must be dealt with. Furthermore, due to the advancing technology of wind turbines, there has been a decline in the number of medium sized wind turbines being manufactured. This study aims to address the problem of future waste mitigation, whilst attempting to capture the medium scale market. As such, the study has looked at the idea of transitioning towards a circular economy, in which wind turbines are not considered as waste at the end of their service life, but rather an opportunity to recapture value through remanufacturing. This was approached by identifying the driver and barriers of remanufactured products, utilising knowledge from other industries with developed remanufacturing sectors. A Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) has been performed using the PROMETHEE II method with the objective of drawing a comparison of three scenarios, enveloped by a theoretical wind turbine selection project. The scenarios were created by the author and considered the implementation of a new wind turbine and remanufactured wind turbines. Upon examining the results of the multi criteria decision analysis, it was seen that the benefits of implementing remanufactured turbines were preferred by the majority of the stakeholders involved.