Repowering of wind turbines: planning and authorisation
Wind farm repowering planning: we modernise existing wind turbines and bring your project up to a contemporary technical and economic level.
In the repowering of wind turbines, older turbines are often replaced by considerably more powerful ones; the number of turbines may fall, stay the same or rise. The site can remain the same or shift, depending on economic and planning criteria. The appeal is obvious: larger rotors and taller towers use the wind at greater height, and existing access roads, cable routes and grid connections can often be reused. At the end of 2025, Austria had around 1,450 wind turbines with just over 4,200 MW, many of them from the early years of expansion. Replacing old turbines with new ones can significantly increase the yield of a site. How large the increase is depends on the site, the age of the existing turbines and the turbine technology chosen, which is why the yield has to be determined site-specifically in preliminary project development. Grid connection, spatial planning and permittability must also be clarified early in this phase. The Renewable Energy Expansion Act (EAG) aims to provide an additional ten terawatt hours of wind power by 2030. Repowering alone is not enough for this; it complements expansion on new sites.
From preliminary project development through preliminary design to permit planning and specialist support in the authorisation procedure, we secure your repowering project from the start. An interdisciplinary team plans turbine layouts, infrastructure and grid connection and considers hybrid solutions with wind, PV and storage from the outset (hybrid park planning). Close coordination with authorities and grid operators is intended to enable swift and rule-compliant implementation. Whether a site is suitable for new turbines is clarified through the site suitability assessment of wind turbines.
On the way from the existing turbines to the new farm, there are typical hurdles that should be clarified early. Many early turbines would no longer meet today's distance rules to residential areas. The existing grid connection is often not sufficient for the higher capacity, so the grid connection or substation has to be adapted. Because of the changed load assumptions, the foundations have to be newly dimensioned; whether existing ones can be reused must be examined case by case, and in mountainous locations narrow roads can make the transport of long rotor blades difficult. Added to this is the view of spatial planning: the UVP-G provides for wind turbines to be built primarily on areas of the supra-local wind energy spatial plan of the respective federal state. The turbine technology also changes: modern turbines are often quieter, rotate more slowly and can be better integrated into the grid, for example by providing reactive power and balancing power.
Every repowering project involves more tasks than planning. You will find more in our services on decommissioning concepts, specialist support in the authorisation procedure, ecological services in repowering and implementation with project financing, detailed design and construction management. For your investment decision, we offer the technical due diligence for wind farms.
