Upgrading the UK’s ageing onshore windfarms could bring huge climate benefits, with fewer turbines. But what to do with the old turbines?
Rewind to 2002 for a minute. Eminem’s The Eminem Show is the best-selling album globally, Brazil has just lifted the men’s football World Cup (again), and Nokia’s 3310 is helping usher in a new era of mobile communication. That old ‘brick’ phone might seem rudimentary by today’s standards, but it was game-changing technology back then. The same can be said of the windfarms that started appearing in the UK around the same time.
Indeed, 2002 was a stellar year for the country’s burgeoning renewables sector. A relaxation of planning laws and improvements in turbine technology saw wind energy truly take off. But, unlike those old 3310s, which were…
