Vindeby Offshore Wind Farm was the first offshore

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...

in the world, erected in 1991 off the coast of the town of Vindeby on the Danish island of

Lolland Lolland (; formerly spelled ''Laaland'', literally "low land") is the fourth largest island of Denmark, with an area of . Located in the Baltic Sea, it is part of Region Sjælland (Region Zealand). As of 1 January 2022, it has 57,618 inhabitan ...

. It was decommissioned for cost reasons in 2017 after 25 years of useful life.

History

Elkraft, one of the predecessors of DONG Energy (now Ørsted), began considering offshore turbines in 1987, and surveyed the waters around

in 1989.Elkraft igang med verdens første offshore møllepark
''

Ingeniøren ''Ingeniøren'' (full name: ''Nyhedsmagasinet Ingeniøren'', literally ''The News Magazine "The Engineer"'') is a Danish weekly newspaper specialising in engineering topics. History and profile The paper has covered science and technology issues ...

'', 18 August 1989. Accessed: 9 February 2016. The wind farm started operation in 1991 and cost an estimated €10 million, built by SEAS and Elkraft. The 11 turbines were erected in 11 days. The electricity industry at the time generally considered offshore turbines to be ludicrous, as they must operate in salty conditions and have much smaller output than central power plants.Korsgaard Nielsen, Michael.
Farvel til verdens første hav-møller
''

Berlingske ''Berlingske'', previously known as ''Berlingske Tidende'' (, ''Berling's Times''), is a Danish national daily newspaper based in Copenhagen. It is considered a newspaper of record for Denmark. First published on 3 January 1749, ''Berlingske' ...

'', 8 February 2016Korsgaard Nielsen, Michael.
Fra energiens originaler til bølgernes gulddrenge
''

'', 8 February 2016 The skeptical attitude had changed 6 years later, as offshore winds drove more energy production than those on land. A single wind turbine had been erected in Swedish waters earlier, but Vindeby was the first collection of turbines, making it the first offshore wind farm. Four years later, the similar sized Tunø Knob wind farm was made. Tests were done to learn what to do and what not to do. Experience from Vindeby contributed to the development of cheaper ways to extract

power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...

from offshore winds.Andersen, Jan.
Stålfundamenter gør havmøller billigere
''

'', 14 January 1997. Accessed: 9 February 2016. The original government concession was for 25 years, from 1991 to 2016. In 2016, DONG Energy first considered shutting down the wind farm, as it was well past its design life and had become uneconomical. Vindeby was the first in a long line of successful wind farms which led a downwards cost trend. Vindeby was the first wind farm to be decommissioned by Dong Energy, which was completed in September 2017. In 25 years, Vindeby had produced a total of 243 GWh.

Technology

The developers contracted Bonus Energy to supply 11

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

s (450 kW each) for the project, placed in shallow waters. The annual power was equivalent to 2-3,000 Danish households. The turbines were modified for offshore use by sealing the towers and controlling the

humidity Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present. Humidity dep ...

inside with

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

, extending the life of the machinery.Stenstrop, Georg
Vindeby
''Kulturarv''. Retrieved: 9 February 2016
Archive
/ref> The area was also used for a wave plant in 2010.

Recycling and waste problems

When the Vindeby Offshore Wind Farm was taken down in 2017, most of the components were

recycled Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...

into new use, particularly metals and concrete. All 33 wind turbine blades (1.2 tonnes each, 39 tonnes total) were sent to various organisations for further use. Most were examined by Risø, some were re-acquired by their manufacturer LM Wind Power or displayed at museums, and some were recycled into

noise barrier A noise barrier (also called a soundwall, noise wall, sound berm, sound barrier, or acoustical barrier) is an exterior structure designed to protect inhabitants of sensitive land use areas from noise pollution. Noise barriers are the most effecti ...

s. However, 1.1 tonne of the

fiberglass Fiberglass ( American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cl ...

from the hub ended as cut up at the Rærup Controlled

Landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the wast ...

near

Aalborg Aalborg (, , ) is Denmark's List of cities in Denmark by population, fourth largest town (behind Copenhagen, Aarhus, and Odense) with a population of 119,862 (1 July 2022) in the town proper and an Urban area, urban population of 143,598 (1 July ...

, even though it is the least environmentally friendly way of handling

waste Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste pr ...

. According to Dakofa, the Danish Competence Center for Waste and Resources, there is nothing specific in the Danish waste order in 2020 about how to handle discarded fiberglass, as fiberglass is not degraded and does not pollute. As so, scrapped wind turbine blades are set to become a huge waste problem in Denmark, and in countries to which Denmark (to a greater and greater extent)

export An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is a ...

its many produced wind turbines. Since 1996, according to an estimate in 2020 made by Lykke Margot Ricard ( SDU), around 7,849—8,810

tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton (United States c ...

of wing

scrap Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered m ...

have been disposed of in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

, and the waste problem will grow significantly in the coming years, when more and more wind turbines have reached their end of life. According to the SDU lecturer's calculations, the waste sector in Denmark will have to receive 46,400 tonnes of fiberglass from wind turbine blades over the next 20-25 years.

itself also has environmental problems with the handling of worn-out turbines, as 250 tonnes of fiberglass from wind turbine waste in 2020 went to a landfill at Gerringe in the middle of Lolland.

References

External links

Comparison sketch
''

'', 8 February 2016 Offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea Wind farms in Denmark Buildings and structures in the Central Denmark Region Ørsted (company) wind farms Energy infrastructure completed in 1991 1991 establishments in Denmark 2017 disestablishments in Denmark

History

Technology

Recycling and waste problems

See also

References

External links