Posters

Abstract

As the first generation of Belgian offshore wind farms nears the end of its design lifetime, repowering has become a critical question for the future of offshore renewables. Although the design and structural lifetime of the foundations preclude the installation of new wind turbines, their reuse with alternative energy assets provides an opportunity to maintain site productivity without resorting to full decommissioning. This study explores the business case for such strategies in the Belgian part of the North Sea. Several scenarios for the deployment of energy generating technologies are formulated based on a multi-criteria analysis (including cost reduction potential, prospective energy generation and technical feasibility). Given the novelty of these technologies, and considering the objective of exploiting the existing foundations, procedures for the installation of the assets are conceptualized, and best estimates are made in terms of CAPEX and OPEX. Together with the results of a resource assessment study, these elements serve as inputs for operational lifetime simulations for costs and energy production. As such, a side-by-side comparison of the selected scenarios will be presented, using not only the classical Levelized Cost Of Energy (LCOE), but also complementary metrics like Cost Of Valued Energy (COVE) and Environmental Value of Energy (EVOE), that reflect value alignment with the energy market, and capture CO2 reduction and infrastructure reuse value, respectively. This provides the necessary nuance to evaluate reuse scenarios and offset them against full decommissioning and repowering. Ultimately, this approach highlights reuse of monopiles not merely as an end-of-life decision for wind turbines, but as a strategic opportunity to optimize existing infrastructure for diversified renewable production. In doing so, it supports more robust business cases and strengthens the role of offshore sites as long-term contributors to Europe’s energy transition.