Answer Man: As Duke builds renewable energy, how long do solar panels, wind turbines last?

Andrew Jones, Asheville Citizen Times
Tue, January 24, 2023 

ASHEVILLE - Power is infinite, right? Electricity doesn’t run out unless you stop paying the bill, right?

Not right. Today’s question probes something we often forget about: How long does power-providing equipment last? Moreover, with state and nationwide moves toward renewable energy, how long do emerging energy tools last?

Got a question for Answer Man or Answer Woman? Email Interim Executive Editor Karen Chávez at KChavez@citizentimes.com and your question could appear in an upcoming column.

Question: Duke Energy in our area is increasing the amount of solar energy that they are producing. Duke also has indicated that it plans to produce wind turbine energy offshore on the North Carolina coastline. What is the life expectancy of solar panels and wind generators before they need to be replaced? What types of routine maintenance is required to maximize the amount of energy generated?

Let’s hone in specifically on Duke Energy’s answers to these questions, starting with solar power.

The company has a helpful crash course on renewable energy maintenance titled, fittingly, “Sustainable Life-Cycle Management for Renewables.”

DESS eBook Sustainable Life... by Andrew Jones

“The typical lifespan of solar PV panels is approximately 20-30 years,” Duke’s e-book explains. “The life span for solar power inverters is upwards of 10 years.”

To be clear, “PV” stands for photovoltaic and a panel is what you picture in your head when you think of solar power.

You may not be familiar with “power inverters,” so allow the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy to explain:

“An inverter is one of the most important pieces of equipment in a solar energy system. It’s a device that converts direct current (DC) electricity, which is what a solar panel generates, to alternating current (AC) electricity, which the electrical grid uses.”

Related:Buncombe votes for expansion of NC's largest public solar cluster, zero-emission vehicles

So, inverters need to be replaced more often than panels and solar power owners are looking at a few decades before the equipment may need complete replacement.

However, that’s not the only option.

According to Duke’s e-book, there is “decommissioning,” which means removing and entirely replacing a system in some cases and there is “recommissioning” or “repowering” which is essentially maintenance.

“Recommissioning or repowering is the process of finding and replacing underperforming – and potentially non-working – components of existing solar PV and/or battery energy storage systems,” the e-book explains. “If the system is failing systemically, a full system replacement is probably the right way to go. However, most systems are in better condition than their performance might suggest.”

Duke extols the “value” of “great maintenance schedules” that include cleaning solar panels and taking advantage of equipment warranties.

Then there’s the wind turbine, a monster of a tool for generating clean energy and the star of some of Duke’s sustainability marketing.

Again, to narrow the scope here, let’s focus on Duke and one of its latest endeavors, an offshore wind energy lease in the Carolina Long Bay, just southeast of Wilmington. A Duke subsidiary in May 2022 was named a provisional winner of a $155 bid to lease turbines there.

According to a news release, the company could begin “site assessment” there in 2023 and “could support up to 1.6 gigawatts of potential offshore wind energy, enough to power nearly 375,000 homes.”

Fully assembled wind turbines undergoing tests and adjustments before being towed out to the site of the Hywind Tampen wind farm, about 85 miles off the Norwegian coast.

Construction will take at least 10 years, Duke estimates.

The turbines at this site could have roughly 15-megawatt output. It’s not immediately clear what brand of turbine this project will use, but turbines have a roughly 20-30-year lifecycle.

Page 19 of a report titled “Building North Carolina's Offshore Wind Supply Chain” references a 30-year lifespan.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management concurs.

In a helpful overview of offshore wind farms titled “Navigational, design, and decommissioning concerns for offshore wind facilities: Fact Sheet,” the BOEM addresses the lifespan question.

“A typical offshore wind lease is valid for approximately 30 years,” the fact sheet states. “Before facilities may be installed under an approved Construction and Operations Plan, a lessee must provide financial assurance that covers the decommissioning of all structures, cables, and obstructions.”

Andrew Jones is an investigative reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at @arjonesreports on Facebook and Twitter, 828-226-6203 or arjones@citizentimes.com. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: As Duke Energy grows, how long do solar systems, wind farms last?