Repowering: Second Lives for Old Wind Farms

The best wind sites were developed first, so thousands of 1990s and 2000s farms now face a choice: keep old small turbines running or replace them. Repowering swaps hundreds of old machines for a few modern ones, multiplying output on the same land, as at Alta in California and across Denmark and Germany.

It reuses roads, grid connections and consents while cutting wildlife impact per megawatt. Expect a wave of it as first generation farms age out this decade..