Who Bears the Cost of Taking Down Wind Turbines Once They Expire?

A supplied image obtained on Nov. 27, 2020, of a wind farm at Granville Harbour in Tasmania, Australia. AAP Image/Courtesy of Granville Harbour Wind Farm

In Australia, landholders or farmers could be the ones to bear the costs of taking down wind turbines at their end of life.

Andrew Dyer, the country’s energy infrastructure commissioner says he has seen several “questionable agreements” between renewable companies and landholders that could leave the latter saddled with millions of dollars in decommissioning bills.

“Under the law, it will default to the landlord,” Mr. Dyer told a Senate Estimates hearing on May 23. “It’s up to the landlord to make sure that they have ... a really good contract in place and you get the appropriate bond set-ups to cover the costs.

“It costs more money to pull a turbine down than it does to put it up, and that probably makes sense when you think about it. The costs of pulling down a turbine may exceed the revenue you get for 25 years. That’s not a good outcome.

“In the case of a turbine in Queensland where the bed plate cracked and you couldn’t go near the turbine because it could fall on your head, that cost millions of dollars to take down with robots and explosives. You could be stuck with some big bills.”

Yet according to major renewable provider, Tilt Renewables, decommissioning plans were embedded into every agreement with landholders.

“The wind farm operator must remove all property from the land by the Actual Termination Date and in any event within one year of decommissioning, return the land as far as practicable to its condition prior to construction in so far as changes are attributable to the wind farm,” a spokesperson told The Epoch Times with rehabilitation of land also included.

“The wind farm operator does not have to remove anything which is located below the surface of the land unless otherwise negotiated with the landholder. Concrete foundations need to be covered with a smooth even covering of soil to a depth of at least one metre and rehabilitated to prevent erosion.”

Further, an agreement will also include a fund to be setup for decommissioning.

How Hard is it to Remove a Wind Turbine?

The average wind turbine has a lifespan of 25 years before it must be decommissioned and taken apart.

Yet the process of deconstructing and disposing of wind turbines is no simple feat.

“They have an in-ground lump of concrete that can be as much as 800 tons [to support a 200-metre high turbine] and could be left to the landowner or a farmer ... to deconstruct what is effectively a giant Meccano [similar to Lego] set,” said federal Nationals MP Keith Pitt in an interview with The Epoch Times on July 28.

Technicians use heavy machinery to assemble part at a construction site where wind turbines are being replaced at the Souleilla-Corbieres wind farm in Treilles, southern France, on June 1, 2023. Raymond Roig/AFP via Getty Images

“This [net zero movement] is moving so fast that no one has the necessary regulations in place to protect the owners of the land, and potentially the future costs to the Australian taxpayer,” he added.

Mr. Pitt called for financial security or bonds to be made compulsory in agreements, like how mining activity features similar arrangements for land rehabilitation once a project concludes.

“That should absolutely happen for intermittent wind and solar. Solar panels that will cover literally millions of hectares, and wind turbines that will dominate the skyline,” he said.

The energy infrastructure commissioner said some renewable energy providers would try to avoid a bond “because the landholder was ignorant to the risk.”

“We put out an updated guideline [pdf] in January this year to help landholders ask the right questions before they sign a document,” Mr. Dyer said.

“There are some questionable agreements out there that were not balanced, in our view, and so we’ve given the community and the landholders a helping hand.”

Mr. Dyer also suggested making bond provisions part of the licensing that goes into building renewable projects.

Decommissioned wind turbine blades in a staging yard in Sweetwater, Texas. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

The march towards net zero has spurred a swathe of logistic, financial, engineering, and even security challenges.

According to the commissioner’s Energy Charter 2023, farmers have said the building of new infrastructure to support renewable energy could come at the cost of farmland.

“[About] 58 percent of surveyed landholders said that transmission infrastructure will result in a direct loss of farmable land or disruption to their land productivity,” the document states.

“Sixty percent also believe transmission infrastructure will impact their use of machinery or equipment. Some landholders also noted biodiversity impacts, which may diminish the natural features valued by the local community and aesthetics of the area.”

Federal MP Pitt said new transmission lines required easements, which need to be kept clear of regrowth to prevent future interference.

“That land generally can’t be farmed and can’t be utilised,” he said. “And it gets in the way of moving around your own property. Generally, no one wants a 200-metre strip of unusable land through the middle of prime agricultural land that impacts not only their operations but the value of their property.”