pwr_october-2023 - 8

Decommissioning Dilemmas:
Navigating the End-of-Life Challenges
in Clean Energy Sources
Planning, building, operating, or overhauling
power plants has long been an
emphasis in the power sector-and an
important one, given that the creation
of new power capacity plays an outsized
role in fulfilling growing energy
demand with implications for business
value, infrastructure modernization, and
economic growth. But the other side of
the lifecycle-the comprehensive endof-life
(EOL) management, including decommissioning
assets as they approach
the end of their operational lifespan-is
often more neglected. But as energy
infrastructure ages and the transition
gains more momentum driven by technology
innovation, the magnitude and
variety of challenges related to decommissioning
are beginning to surface.
Much of the discussion about decommissioning
has so far focused on fossilfired
power generation, mainly because
coal and gas plants make up the lion's
share of recent retirements. The U.S. Energy
Information Administration, for example,
estimates 15.6 GW of coal and natural
gas plants will retire in 2023, accounting
for 98% of capacity retirements in the
U.S. These retiring fossil-fired units-most
built in the 1970s and 1980s-will undergo
a complex multi-year process that
includes power plant demolition, contamination
clean up, remediation, and redevelopment.
However, experts have begun
urging industry and policymakers to also
proactively prepare for decommissioning
of " clean energy sources, " including nuclear
plants, renewable plants, and energy
storage facilities, because these projects
could require resolving a vastly different
set of safety, security, ethical, economic,
and regulatory challenges.
Nuclear Decommissioning Hinges
on Adequate Resource Planning. In
an April 2023 bulletin, the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) warned
that almost half of the 410 nuclear power
reactors in operation today may be permanently
shut down by 2050 and must
be decommissioned. So far, more than
200 nuclear power reactors worldwide
have been retired from service, but only
21 of these have been fully decommissioned,
the agency noted.
" Decommissioning is not complete
until radioactive and other hazardous ma8
terials
have been removed from the site,
and the buildings and land which were
formerly used as nuclear facilities have
been prepared for new uses, " the IAEA
said. The final step of the decommissioning
process " involves extensive surveys
to confirm the absence of any significant
radioactivity on the site, enabling its release
from regulatory control, " it says.
Nuclear plant decommissioning,
however, usually requires a significant
timespan and budget. The process typically
takes 15 to 20 years-but it can
take much longer-and costs typically
range from $500 million to $2 billion and
hinge on size and complexity, the agency
said. Among the biggest challenges for
the decommissioning industry is securing
significant human and financial resources
to implement decommissioning
programs, some of which could run to
the end of this century. " For commercial
facilities, funds have generally been set
aside during operation to cover the costs
of decommissioning, " the agency noted.
" However, the decommissioning of a
significant number of facilities is funded
either directly or indirectly from state resources.
In these cases, the availability
or not of sufficient funding may delay
such implementation. "
The IAEA, however, is optimistic that
new and emerging technologies could
improve decommissioning efficiency.
These include the application of digital
techniques to support planning and
to optimize project implementation;
greater use of remotely operated tools
(such as drones and robotics) for the
segmentation of plant components,
material handling, measurements, and
decontamination; the increased automation
of waste management activities;
and the use of artificial intelligence.
Emerging Decommissioning Hurdles
for the Coming Surge of Renewables.
Because solar panels and wind turbines
typically have a useful life of about 20
to 30 years, experts have urged renewable
energy project owners, developers,
and other participants to plan for project
end-of-life obligations. Solar PV decommissioning
typically entails equipment
removal, followed by reuse, recycling,
and disposal of PV modules. In contrast,
wind farm decommissioning comprises
more steps, including site preparation,
laydown of the blades, hub, and other
wind turbine components, disassemwww.powermag.com
bling
and cutting, then material management,
and site rehabilitation.
According to the Electric Power Research
Institute (EPRI), some of the
biggest challenges faced by the solar,
wind, as well as lithium-ion battery storage
industries relate to managing EOL
waste volumes. The independent powerindustry
research entity suggests that by
2030, global cumulative EOL PV panels
could soar to 8 million metric tons (equivalent
to 1.2 million dumpsters). By 2050,
those numbers could grow to 78 million
metric tons (12 million dumpsters).
" EOL management of existing energy
technologies is increasingly viewed as
an opportunity to maximize [return on investment]
of the critical materials within
them; however, only a limited number
of EOL management processes are currently
in place across the range of technology
vendors and project developers,
and the extent to which they meet utility
sustainability, certification, and liability
requirements varies, " EPRI notes. So far,
a range of stakeholders, including technology
industries, waste management
and recycling industries, electric utilities,
and environmental regulators " actively
recognize future waste volumes as
a resource to be reused rather than to
be disposed, " EPRI added. However, as
" EOL volumes of solar PV panels, wind
turbines, and electric vehicle and gridscale
battery energy storage systems
increase, electric utilities are attempting
to identify how to responsibly and costeffectively
manage these materials. "
1. In 2022, RWE became the first commercial,
large-scale offshore developer to install
Siemens Gamesa's fully RecyclableBlade,
with several blades being utilized in the Kaskasi
offshore wind power project located 35
kilometers north of the island of Heligoland in
the German North Sea. The Kaskasi project
uses 81-meter-long RecyclableBlades on the
selected SG 8.0-167 DD offshore wind turbines.
Courtesy: RWE Renewables
POWER | October 2023
http://www.powermag.com
PWR_ October-2023

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