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China energy security
EconomyChina Economy

In China first, project breathes new life into ageing wind turbines

State-owned recycling group says work has begun on remanufacturing 25 turbines in Gansu province

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Workers make wind turbines at a factory in Jiuquan, Gansu province, last year. Photo: Xinhua
He Huifengin Guangdong

China has launched its first batch-scale remanufacturing project for retired wind turbines in Jiuquan, Gansu province, as an ageing fleet enters a new phase of its life cycle and Beijing seeks to encourage recycling in its massive renewable-energy sector.

China Resources Recycling Group (CRRG) – a state-owned enterprise established in 2024 with backing from China’s State Council and several industrial giants with the aim of bolstering national resource security – said on its website that its Xinyuan Jiuquan subsidiary had begun remanufacturing an initial batch of 25 wind turbines that had been in service for more than 15 years early this month.

The machines had qualified for retirement due to degradation, falling efficiency and rising maintenance costs, the company said, but engineers remanufactured prototypes using proprietary processes, including structural damage repair, performance reinforcement and precision restoration of transmission systems.

The process improved the turbines’ performance significantly, it added, with core components approaching the standards of comparable new equipment. CRRG said they could be redeployed for distributed wind power, small self-generation plants and auxiliary industrial power supply.

China’s earliest wind farms are entering a major retirement cycle, posing a growing challenge for an industry that has spent decades building the world’s largest renewable-energy fleet.

China’s cumulative installed wind capacity had surpassed 680 gigawatts by June, according to data from National Energy Administration. Meanwhile, over 30,000 turbines across the country were expected to reach their operational lifespan by 2030, which the administration’s China Power News Network said translated into 44.7GW in retired capacity and nearly 950,000 tonnes (1.05 million short tons) of waste.

Lin Boqiang, director of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University, said establishing a circular model for renewable-energy equipment could significantly strengthen China’s global advantage in the sector.

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