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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.

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