UK-China collaboration on sustainable offshore wind end-of-life and supply chains

With nearly 90 GW of offshore wind already installed worldwide—and ambitions to grow this to 2,000 GW by 2050— questions around end-of-life (EoL) management and supply chains are rising to the top of the agenda. As the world’s two largest offshore wind markets, the UK and China are well placed to shape the answers.

In October 2025, a high-level UK delegation spanning industry, government and academia travelled to China for a bilateral knowledge exchange with leading Chinese counterparts. The initiative, convened by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Engineering X in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Engineering and China Southern Power Grid, brought together expertise from across the global offshore wind community.

The UK delegation was co-led by Professor Susan Gourvenec, Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies for Intelligent & Resilient Ocean Engineering (IROE), and Professor Deborah Greaves, Director of ORE Supergen. Participants included representatives from The Crown Estate, ORE Catapult, RenewableUK, National Grid, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), G+ (the global offshore wind health and safety organisation), UK hi-tech spinout company Xmoor, and academic experts from the Universities of Southampton, Plymouth, Hull and Exeter.

A newly released report captures the key insights from this exchange, highlighting both shared priorities and contrasting approaches.

It shows that in China, near-term EoL challenges are driven largely by the country’s ageing onshore wind fleet, with offshore decommissioning expected to become significant from the 2040s. Current efforts are focused on advancing technical solutions—particularly blade recycling, material recovery and circular design—supported by an expanding circular economy policy framework. In the UK, the timeline is more immediate. The first generation of offshore wind farms is expected to reach the end of its design life in the 2030s, bringing urgency to decisions around life extension and repowering. While these approaches can help manage future volumes, they also face practical challenges, including harsh offshore conditions, complex logistics, ageing infrastructure and the need for clearer regulatory guidance.

Both countries are already taking action. China is advancing recycling and life-extension technologies at pace, while the UK is developing pilot projects, regulatory initiatives and planning tools aimed at enabling safe, cost-effective and more circular EoL pathways.

The report also highlights differences in supply chain structures. China benefits from vertically integrated organisations and long-term certainty provided by national five-year plans, including coordinated grid development. In contrast, the UK’s supply chain is more fragmented and influenced by market dynamics. Despite this, both countries are prioritising innovation in areas such as floating wind, resilience to extreme weather, hybrid and co-located systems, and digitalisation.

Importantly, the exchange underscored the value of continued collaboration. Future opportunities include joint work on international decommissioning standards, embedding circular design principles across the supply chain, sharing lessons from early projects, and developing robust decision-making frameworks.

You can download the full report and find out more about the Engineering X Safer End of Engineering Life Programme for Offshore Wind on the Royal Academy of Engineering website.