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On inauguration day, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that would indefinitely suspend permits for new onshore wind energy projects on federal land, as well as a new lease of wind farms offshore waters along the U.S. coast. The lawsuit not only fulfilled Trump’s pledge for a “new windmill” campaign, but also took another blow to the wind industry, which has been hit hard over the past few years by supply chain obstacles.
Nevertheless, the nation’s well-established onshore wind industry, built for decades, generates nearly 11% of America’s electricity, becoming the largest source of renewable energy, and surpasses coal-fired power generation last year. On April 8, the fossil fuel-friendly Trump administration took steps to strengthen coal mining and power plants, but efforts to “resend” new business opportunities to key players in the industry as an infrastructure that promotes wind energy.
This repowering activity has emerged as a bright spot for the wind industry, giving market leaders Ge ververnova, Vestas and Siemens Gamesa, a subsidiary of Munich-based Siemens Energy, a much-needed boost. Following some challenging years of inactive performance, particularly due to set-folding on both onshore and offshore projects, all three companies reported an increase in revenue in 2024, with stocks in both Ge vernova and Siemens getting higher.
Ge Vernova spun off from General Electric a year ago, leading the overall facility on land in 2024, followed by Denmark’s Vesta (40%) and Siemens Gamesa (4%) in 56% of the US market.
GE Vernova stock performance over the past year.
According to US Energy Information AgencyThe installed wind power generation capacity increased from 2.4 gigawatts (GW) in 2000 to 150.1 GW as of April 2024. New Report From Wood Mackenzie, an energy research firm.
There are currently around 1,500 onshore wind farms with over 75,600 turbines rotating in 45 states led by Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Illinois and Kansas. Virtually all wind farms are on private property, with many of the largest being owned and operated by major energy companies. nextera energyRWE Clean Energy, Pattern Energy, Clear Way Energy, Xcel Energy and Berkshire HathawayCentral American energy, which generates 59% of renewable energy from the wind, including 3,500 turbines operating in 38 wind projects in Iowa.
The number of turbines is on the rise, and are over 20 years old and approaching the end of their lifecycle. Therefore, operators need to decide whether to upgrade or replace key components of aging turbines such as blades, rotors, and electronics, or to dismantle them completely and dismantle new, technologically advanced, much more efficient models that can increase power output by up to 50%.
“What’s clear is that the US will set up more and more bases [of onshore turbines] “We’ve seen a lot of effort into making it a great deal,” said Charles Coppins, research analyst at Global Wind at Wood Mackenzie. [ones]. ”
So far, around 70 GW of onshore wind capacity has been fully repeated in the US, with another 12 GW in part. The company estimates that around 10,000 turbines will be eliminated and another 6,000 will be eliminated over the next decade, Coppins said.
The wind turbine that first hit the tornado was damaged and lightning bolts.
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Beyond the fact that aging turbines need to be upgraded or replaced, re-entering existing wind farms and building new sites offers economic benefits for operators and OEMs. In the first place, there is no need to acquire property. In fact, in certain circumstances, today’s turbines are bigger and more efficient, and therefore require fewer turbines. It also generates additional power, has a longer lifecycle and ultimately provides higher output at a lower cost.
Still, “there is a limit to how much capacity we can increase projects to the power grid without going through new permission processes or interconnect queues,” said Stephen Maldonado, US onshore analyst at Wood Mackenzie. You can add electricity to your project and still send it to the grid, as long as the operator does not exceed the permitted interconnect volume agreed with the local utility.
Maldonado said public opposition could be another hurdle to overcome. Whether it’s a new wind project or a repowered wind project, residents have expressed concerns about environmental hazards, reduced property value, aesthetics and anti-family sentiment in general.
According to CEO Andrew Flanagan, RWE, a subsidiary of the German RWE Group, is the third largest renewable energy company in the United States, owns and operates 41 utility-scale wind farms, accounting for 48% of its total portfolio of installation operations and generates capacity including solar and battery storage.
One of RWE’s two repower projects (both in Texas) is a Forest Creek Wind Farm commissioned in 2006 and featuring 54 Siemens Games Saturbines. The project will be replaced by 45 new GE Verno Butter Turbines, which will return online later this year, with an additional 30 years of GE Verno Butter Turbines extending the Wind Farm’s lifespan. At the same time, RWE and Ge Ververnova are partnering with a new wind farm adjacent to Forest Creek, adding 64 more turbines to the complex. Once completed, RWE will deliver a total of 308 mW of wind energy to homes and businesses in the area.
Flanagan noted that the combined projects are linked to increased electricity demand due to the production of oil and gas in the region. “It’s great to see our wind generation drive all energy approaches,” he said. Additionally, at its peak, the Repower Project alone will employ 250 construction workers, bringing $30 million to local tax revenue over its operating period, he added.
Similarly, the Twin Project will support advanced manufacturing facilities in Pensacola in Gernobia, Florida, and advance the OEM Repower business. In January, the company announced that it had been ordered in 2024 to repeat wind turbines over 1 GW of wind turbines in the United States.
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Siemens Gamesa ran several large US repearing projects on Midamerican, Iowa’s vast Rolling Hills Wind Farm, which came online in 2011. In 2019, the company replaced 193 older turbines with 163 higher capacity models at its manufacturing plants in Iowa and Kansas.
Last year, Siemens Gamesa began repeating the 17-year-old champion Wind from RWE, a 127 MW wind farm in western Texas. The company is upgrading 41 of its turbines, including new blades and nacelles (hosting at the top of the tower containing important electrical components).)) Add six new turbines.
In early April, Clearway announced an agreement with Vestas to repeat Mount Stormwind Farm in Grant County, West Virginia. The project involves removing 132 existing turbines on the site and replacing them with 78 new models. Repower increases the overall power generation of the Mount Storm by 85% and reduces the turbine by 40%.
Turbine recycling and customs “megaton” preparation
Another advantage of repolling is to revitalize the early industry recycling megatons of ingredients from abolished turbines such as blades, steel, copper and aluminum. Most operating turbines today are 85% to 95% recyclable, and OEMs design 100% recyclable models.
Most of the oth ball blades, made of fiberglass and carbon fiber, have historically become landfills, but several startups have recycled the technology. For example, the Carbon River will contract with turbine OEMs and wind farm operators to recover glass, carbon fiber and resin systems from decommissioned blades to produce new composites and resins used in next-generation turbine blades, marine vessels, composite concrete and automotive parts.
Veolia North America, a subsidiary of French company Veolia Group, reconstructs fuel-melted blades and other composites into fuel and sells them to manufacturers as substitutes for coal, sand and clay. Veolia handles roughly 6,500 wind blades at its Missouri facility, expanding its throughput to meet demand, according to David Araujo, general manager of Veolia’s Engineered Fuels.
Trump’s New Project Moratorium is not the only obstacle to the wind industry. The President’s import duties, particularly 25% collection on steel and aluminum, has affected US manufacturers in most sectors.
However, John Hensley, Senior Vice President of Market and Policy Analysis for the American Clean Power Association, a product group that represents the clean energy industry, said: He cited a US manufacturing base that contains hundreds of plants that produce parts and components for turbines. Although some materials have been imported, investments in domestic manufacturing “providing risk mitigation to these tariffs,” he said.
Amidst the headwind, the onshore wind industry is trying to focus on the role that repurifying can play in meeting the country’s exponentially growing demand for electricity. “We’re expecting a 35% to 50% increase between now and 2040, which is incredible,” Hensley said. “It’s like adding a new Louisiana to the grid every year for 15 years.”
Ge Vernova CEO Scott Strazik recently told CNBC’s Jim Cramer that it was the biggest since the industrial boom that followed the end of World War II. “You have to go back to 1945 and the end of World War II. That’s the build-out of the infrastructure we have,” he said.
As OEMs and Wind Farm developers continue to face rising capital costs for new projects and rising Trump administration to avoid the clean energy industry, “Repowering provides a pathway to deliver more electrons to the grid in a way that avoids some of the challenges associated with all these issues, or at least minimizes some of the challenges,” Hensley said.
