Addressing heterogeneity in the development of circular economy strategies in the offshore wind industry: A review

To mitigate the impact of climate change, a transition to renewables in the energy sector is needed. Offshore wind energy is a promising renewable technology that is developing at an unprecedented rate. However, the offshore wind industry is material intensive, and there are concerns about its end-o...

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Main Authors: Pankaj Ravindra Gode, Arild Aspelund
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-11-01
Series:Heliyon
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844024156083
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author Pankaj Ravindra Gode
Arild Aspelund
author_facet Pankaj Ravindra Gode
Arild Aspelund
author_sort Pankaj Ravindra Gode
collection DOAJ
description To mitigate the impact of climate change, a transition to renewables in the energy sector is needed. Offshore wind energy is a promising renewable technology that is developing at an unprecedented rate. However, the offshore wind industry is material intensive, and there are concerns about its end-of-life strategies and that we might end up exchanging a climate challenge with a material challenge. The question is whether there are available, mature, and commercially viable solutions for offshore wind companies that want to adopt a circular economy. This study offers an exhaustive review of the academic literature on eight existing and emerging circular economy strategies for the offshore wind industry – lifetime extension, reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishing, repurposing, modularisation, repowering and recycling, and classifying them according to the technology readiness level/strategy assessment framework. The systematic literature review identified 66 relevant articles using two databases and a keyword search. The main conclusion is that the circular economy in the offshore wind industry is an under-researched, underdeveloped field with great heterogeneity in the development of circular economy strategies. This heterogeneity is caused by wide variation in the country and region-specific development of circular economy strategies, policy and regulatory factors, economic viability, and lack of knowledge. We also find that the circular economy strategies with potentially the best environmental outcome are the ones that are furthest from market maturity and commercial viability.
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spelling doaj-art-1ba6046ea66a4b098de69c0b53c722c02024-11-15T06:12:57ZengElsevierHeliyon2405-84402024-11-011021e39577Addressing heterogeneity in the development of circular economy strategies in the offshore wind industry: A reviewPankaj Ravindra Gode0Arild Aspelund1Corresponding author.; Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Department for Industrial Economics and Technology Management, Sentralbygg 2, Trondheim, NorwayNorwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Department for Industrial Economics and Technology Management, Sentralbygg 2, Trondheim, NorwayTo mitigate the impact of climate change, a transition to renewables in the energy sector is needed. Offshore wind energy is a promising renewable technology that is developing at an unprecedented rate. However, the offshore wind industry is material intensive, and there are concerns about its end-of-life strategies and that we might end up exchanging a climate challenge with a material challenge. The question is whether there are available, mature, and commercially viable solutions for offshore wind companies that want to adopt a circular economy. This study offers an exhaustive review of the academic literature on eight existing and emerging circular economy strategies for the offshore wind industry – lifetime extension, reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishing, repurposing, modularisation, repowering and recycling, and classifying them according to the technology readiness level/strategy assessment framework. The systematic literature review identified 66 relevant articles using two databases and a keyword search. The main conclusion is that the circular economy in the offshore wind industry is an under-researched, underdeveloped field with great heterogeneity in the development of circular economy strategies. This heterogeneity is caused by wide variation in the country and region-specific development of circular economy strategies, policy and regulatory factors, economic viability, and lack of knowledge. We also find that the circular economy strategies with potentially the best environmental outcome are the ones that are furthest from market maturity and commercial viability.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844024156083Circular economyOffshore wind industryWaste managementTechnology readiness levelSystem-level change
spellingShingle Pankaj Ravindra Gode
Arild Aspelund
Addressing heterogeneity in the development of circular economy strategies in the offshore wind industry: A review
Heliyon
Circular economy
Offshore wind industry
Waste management
Technology readiness level
System-level change
title Addressing heterogeneity in the development of circular economy strategies in the offshore wind industry: A review
title_full Addressing heterogeneity in the development of circular economy strategies in the offshore wind industry: A review
title_fullStr Addressing heterogeneity in the development of circular economy strategies in the offshore wind industry: A review
title_full_unstemmed Addressing heterogeneity in the development of circular economy strategies in the offshore wind industry: A review
title_short Addressing heterogeneity in the development of circular economy strategies in the offshore wind industry: A review
title_sort addressing heterogeneity in the development of circular economy strategies in the offshore wind industry a review
topic Circular economy
Offshore wind industry
Waste management
Technology readiness level
System-level change
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844024156083
work_keys_str_mv AT pankajravindragode addressingheterogeneityinthedevelopmentofcirculareconomystrategiesintheoffshorewindindustryareview
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