Liars and wordsmiths don’t demolish and rebuild wind farms they “repower” them
Australia’s oldest commercial wind farm to close as cost of repowering is too high
By Jo Nova
Repowering with intent to deceive…
When the subsidies run out, and an old industrial wind plant is due to be demolished and rebuilt, there are perfectly good English words the industry could use like demolish, rebuild or replace, but instead they call it “repowering” — as if we could just plug a bigger extension cord in and let those turbines grow.
In the headline above, Reneweconomy could have just as easily have said the cost of “rebuilding” the old wind farm was too high, and most of the country would know exactly what that means. Instead “repowering” sounds like a minor low cost maintenance job. Nothing to see here!
Think of the difference between someone saying they want to repower your house compared with saying they’re going to demolish and rebuild it…
You might agree to a little repowering without thinking about it. And that’s the point isn’t it? To sneak in a giant civil works operation and a set of 200 meter towers with blades bigger than the wingspan of a Jumbo Jet. Those new foundations will need 3,000 tons of concrete each. Just call it repowering!
Old industrial wind turbines are only 1MW or so, but the new ones are 6 to 8 MW. That’s six times more powerful, and nearly three times as tall. Obviously, none of the old bearings, gears, blades or footings will be reused in the new towers. Ironically, the only thing about repowering that doesn’t change is the power-cord.
https://joannenova.com.au/2025/06/liars-and-wordsmiths-dont-demolish-and-rebuild-wind-farms-they-repower-them/
