Goodnight Irene
The Dutch have been using wind power for so long that it’s time to decommission the Irene Vorrink wind farm this year. The first-generation Irene Vorrink wind farm, named after a Dutch Labour Party politician who died in 1996, has been operational since 1997.

The 16.8 MW project (pictured above) features 28 Nordtank NTK600/43 wind turbines that stand in a long row, close to the shore of Lake IJsselmeer, in an average water depth of 16 feet (5 meters). The site is owned and operated by Swedish power company Vattenfall.

The site will be be repowered as part of the Windplanblauw project, which is being jointly developed by Vattenfall and wind cooperative SwifterwinT. Windplanblauw is expected to be online from 2023 and capable of powering around 400,000 households.

4COffshore reports on Windplanblauw’s details:

In total, 74 older turbines (28 of which are from Irene Vorrink) will be replaced with 61 new and more powerful ones. SwifterwinT will develop the onshore turbines and Vattenfall and SwifterwinT will develop the nearshore turbines together. The project is expected to yield 250 MW.

The life span of a wind turbine is currently around 25 years, depending on maintenance quality and environmental factors. (The oldest operating wind turbine is currently Tvindkraft in Denmark, which is now 43.)

Where do wind turbines go when they die? Technically, wind turbines are 85-90% recyclable, but their blades are currently challenging to break down. Further, blade recycling efforts have been hampered by a failure to match recovered materials to supply chain needs and end products