Repowering

Repowering is the process of replacing older power stations with newer ones that either have a greater nameplate capacity or more efficiency which results in a net increase of power generated. Repowering can happen in several different ways. It can be as small as switching out and replacing a boiler, to as large as replacing the entire system to create a more powerful system entirely. There are many upsides to repowering. The simple act of refurbishing the old with the new is in itself beneficial alongside the cost reduction for keeping the plant running. With less costs and a higher energy output, the process is excessively beneficial.

Countries like Germany and Denmark that have a large number of wind turbines installed relative to their total land size have resorted to repowering older turbines in order to increase wind power capacity and generation. The power as well as use of wind farms has grown since the 1990s.

With new innovations to improve existing Wind power technology, the Repowering process is to upgrade these old wind turbines. By Repowering these old wind turbine with new upgrades this will greatly improve the efficiency of energy these new Wind turbine can generate. The new technology will greatly increase the amount of energy these Wind turbine can output. In California, the wind turbines are aging it would be effective to Repower the wind turbines but there seems to be a lack of economic incentive across legislature to put money forth for such processes. The inefficient turbines In California were implemented in the 1980s; they run at 1320 megawatts.

The potential benefits that run along with repowering these California turbines are as follows:

Although many barriers continue to hinder rapid wind‐project repowering, a primary barrier is simply that many existing, aging wind facilities are more profitable, in the near term, in continued operations than they might be if they pursue repowering with new wind turbines. Therefore, it can be difficult to repower wind turbine facilities based on early numbers.

In 2005, a large majority of United States wind turbines were of the size range between 51 kW to 100 kW. In 2002 there was first put in a Megawatt-class turbine (KEMA, Inc.). By 2007, California was only able to repower 20% of the potential power that being 365 MW of the 1,640MW maximum.

With new environmental regulation in the United States, coal-fired power plants are becoming obsolete. As many as three-fourths of coal-fired power plants are being shut down.[citation needed] Short-term options include retiring the plant or quick conversion to direct firing of the boiler with natural gas. Repowering these old coal burning power plants into gas burning boilers. It's estimated that as much as 30 gigawatts (GW) of existing U.S. power generation capacity could be lost through plant closings due to new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations. There could be a saving of 20 percent of the capital cost instead of building brand new power plants founded by EPRI studied.

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