Lighting and Decommissioning of Turbines, example Waubra Planning Report and Permit

LIGHTING
4. Where the tops of the blades of the wind generators exceed 110 metres above
ground level the plan is to be referred to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to
ascertain their requirements, if any, for lighting. If CASA requires lighting to any
turbine the permit holder must remove or reduce the height of that turbine so that it
does not exceed 110 metres above ground level to avoid the requirement for lighting.
5. No external lighting of infrastructure associated with the wind energy facility, other
than low level security lighting where appropriate, may be installed or operated
without further consent from the Minister for Planning.




RE-POWERING
31. No wind turbine or any component of a wind turbine, approved in the plans endorsed
under Condition 1 of this permit, shall be replaced in a manner that would materially
affect the location, size, external visual appearance, sound power characteristics,
model, generator capacity, or electrical output of the turbine, without further written
consent from the Minister for Planning.
DECOMMISSIONING
32. The wind energy facility operator must, without delay, notify the Minister for Planning
in writing as soon as all or any wind energy facility generators have permanently
ceased to generate electricity, whether due to planned removal, faults or otherwise.
Within 12 months of that date, the wind energy facility operator, or in the absence of
the operator, the owner of the land in which the relevant generator is located must
undertake the following to the satisfaction of the Minister for Planning:
(a) Remove all non-operational or downed equipment;
(b) Remove and clean up any residual spills;
(c) Clean up and restore all storage, construction and other area associated with
use, development and decommissioning of the wind energy facility, including
provision of soil cover and grassing over the wind generator site;
(d) Restore all access roads and any other area affected by the project closure or
decommissioning, if not otherwise useful to the on-going management of the
land;
(e) Prepare and submit a post-decommissioning traffic management plan to the
satisfaction of the Minister for Planning and, when approved by the Minister
for Planning, implement that plan; and
(f) Prepare and submit a post-decommissioning revegetation management plan
to the satisfaction of the Minister for Planning and, when approved by the
Minister for Planning, implement that plan.





Decommission Summary from the United States;
Author: Hewson, Tom
Last month, EVA was hired by the Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy to evaluate a Decommissioning Cost Report prepared for the Beech Ridge Energy Project ¡ª a 124-turbine project proposed for Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The project wind developer (Invergy) had argued that the scrap value of the wind turbines would far exceed the cost to decommission the wind project and that therefore they should be responsible for bonding $2,500/turbine that would slowly escalate to $25,000/turbine by year 16.
EVA completed an independent estimate of the salvage value of the Beech Ridge Wind turbines. The applicant¡¯s consultant estimated that its salvage value credit would reach $12.64 million ($101,900/turbine) in their decommissioning fund study based upon application of general scrap factors and prices. This scrap value credit would more than offset their estimated demo costs ($8.68 million: $70,000/turbine).
EVA contacted the major regional scrap yards directly and got current scrap prices for steel, copper and transport. From these data, EVA developed a Beech Ridge project¨Cspecific salvage credit estimate of only $2.63 million, i.e., $10.01 million less than the original applicant study. We uncovered several major flaws in the applicant study methodology and pricing. They not only used old scrap prices but failed to take into account that they would have to transport the scrap to a yard. In addition, to obtain the posted scrap price, they would need to break down the tower into 3-4 ft long pieces or else the quoted price would be significantly less. In addition, the copper materials must also have their insulation stripped and/or copper pieces separated to obtain their posted copper price. If not, their scrap value would be far less than the common posted price. Given the large drop in scrap prices this year (>40%), scrap value can no longer cover decommissioning costs.
EVA also compared the estimated demolition costs to another decommissioning report for another wind project developer that had contained detailed cost breakdowns. The other study estimated demo costs of $97K/turbine vs. $70K/turbine by Beech Ridge. The bottom line is that using the demolition costs from the other wind turbine project decommissioning study would translate to a Beech Ridge demo cost of $12.03 million, i.e., $3.35 million more the applicant¡¯s $8.68 million estimate. (Note: In another very recent project I have just reviewed, the decommissioning costs were again severely underestimated by more than 50% by not taking into account recent crane rental rates, extremely low earth moving costs, and assuming high productivity rates (6 turbines/wk).)
The bottom line is that even if the permitting agency allows the salvage credit, the total net cost of decommissioning this project today would be $10.4 million ($83,900/turbine). Our analysis quantified the large scrap price and demo cost escalation risk being assumed by the local community. To protect the community, the permitting agency should require a bond of a minimum $100/K per turbine ($12.4 million) to capture demolition cost escalation risk. If the wind developer can convince the bonding company of the high salvage value, then they should be able to negotiate a lower rate for the bond. If they were right, there would be very little price difference for a larger $12+ million bond. Shift the risk to the bonding company. Let the developer and bonding company assume the price risk ¡ª not the community.
Tom Hewson
Principal
Energy Ventures Analysis
Arlington , VA

http://www.wind-watch.org/documents/wind-decommissioning-costs-lessons-learned/