Trillions have been invested in solar and wind over the past two decades - but much of that infrastructure is aging fast. The solution? Repowering.

Repowering is breathing new life into older solar and wind farms, helping them keep pace with today’s energy demands and tomorrow’s opportunities in storage integration, AI-driven grid management, and expanding electrification.

What Is Repowering?

Repowering is the process of refurbishing, upgrading, or modernizing existing renewable energy assets, especially solar and wind farms, to restore or increase performance. Infrastructure (modules, inverters, turbines) suffers from wear, technological obsolescence, and weather impacts, typically after 10–15 years for solar or 20–25 years for wind. Rather than building entirely new projects, repowering capitalizes on valuable, existing sites and grid connections, breathing new life into assets that might otherwise be underperforming.

Why Repowering Is Valuable

What’s the biggest hurdle when developing a renewable project? Land and grid access. Repowering smartly sidesteps these - they’re already secured. Here are the advantages:

• Faster Project Timelines.: Existing sites leverage prior investments in land, permits, and grid hookups, eliminating prolonged, costly negotiations. With no new greenfield development, upgrades can be completed in as little as 90–180 days for solar, compared to years for new builds.

• Reduced CapEx: Projects typically require less capital and experience fewer regulatory challenges; partial repowering often just swaps modules or inverters, full repowering reconfigures entire plants.

• Boosts ROI: Performance upgrades mean higher output and extended asset life. New technology often delivers far more capacity - for example, wind turbines installed in the U.S. in 2023 had 375% more capacity than those installed just 25 years ago.

Why Now? Market Timing Matters

Most of the world’s massive solar boom occurred between 2010–2015, and those assets are reaching the end of their originally forecasted lifespans. With over 1.6 terawatts of solar installed worldwide by mid-2024, nearly half of it was added in the last two years alone, and many of the older assets are prime for repowering.

To put it in perspective:

In 2024, the world added a record 585 GW of new renewable energy capacity. Early numbers from 2025 show this momentum accelerating, with global solar installations alone expected to hit an astonishing 655 GW in 2025 - a 10% jump over the previous year. The worldwide solar market is now on track to surpass 2,000 GW cumulative capacity by the end of 2025, continuing its streak of double-digit annual growth.

Wind and solar modules built 10+ years ago are substantially less efficient than what’s available today, often leaving asset owners with underperforming investments at a time of record demand for green energy.

But what’s truly telling for decision-makers?

Some Example of Repowering

Repowering is already mainstream: In Germany, 37% of all new onshore wind capacity developed in 2024 came from repowering projects - in some regions, over 60% of new capacity was the result of upgrades rather than new builds. This trend highlights a global shift. Service providers and capital are now flowing rapidly into the upgrade market, with asset owners looking to capture new value from their well-located, already-permitted sites.

Image Source: Status of Onshore Wind Energy Development in Germany report, 2024

Another example: U.S.-based specialists like CSS Repower focus on transforming aging solar farms into profitable assets. Their team offers complete in-house solutions: asset evaluation, engineering, permitting, and financial modeling. They leverage the “80/20 rule” for tax credits (meaning sites qualifying as repowered projects may access new incentives), and can complete most solar repowering projects in 3 to 6 months. The outcome here is - Upgraded sites that once lagged behind can now generate energy; and returns - close to those of newly built installations.

The Repowering Process: Key Steps

Thinking about repowering an asset? The process typically involves:

• Site Assessment – Check equipment condition and performance gaps.

• Design & Engineering – Plan upgrades with modern, compatible tech.

• Permitting – Faster since the site exists; minimal re-permitting needed.

• Decommissioning – Remove, recycle, or repurpose outdated equipment.

• Installation – Deploy and commission new components for higher output.

• Monitoring – Track performance, ROI, and optimize ongoing operations.

Bottom line

Repowering is quickly becoming the smart play for aging solar and wind investments. It fast-tracks additional clean energy capacity without the delays of new construction, and it amplifies returns on sunk costs like land and interconnection. As one tagline puts it, it’s about “renewing the renewables” – taking our first-generation clean energy farms and upgrading them to be part of the next-generation grid.

About Penomo

Penomo is a digital asset infrastructure platform specializing in tokenized energy and AI infrastructure financing. By transforming physical infrastructure into compliant digital securities, we connect private capital markets with institutional-grade renewable energy and AI investments. Through tokenization, Penomo is streamlining capital access, enhancing liquidity, and enabling efficient financing for the global energy transition and AI expansion.

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