The Key Constituents, Research Trends, and Future Directions of the Circular Economy Applied to Wind Turbines Using a Bibliometric Approach

Luis Zanon-Martinez and Conrado Carrascosa-Lopez ()
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Luis Zanon-Martinez: Departamento Ingeniería Mecánica y de Materiales, Universitat Politécnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Conrado Carrascosa-Lopez: Departamento Organización Empresas, Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 15, 1-23

Abstract: The concept of the circular economy aims to develop systems for reusing, recovering, and recycling products and services, pursuing both economic growth and sustainability. In many countries, legislation has been enacted to create frameworks ensuring environmental protection and fostering initiatives to implement the circular economy across various sectors. The wind energy industry is no exception, with industries and institutions adopting strategies to address the forthcoming challenge of repowering or dismantling a significant quantity of wind turbines in the coming years reaching a total of global wind power capacity by 2024. This also involves managing the resulting waste, which includes materials with high economic value as well as others that have considerable environmental impacts but that can be reused, recycled, or converted. In parallel, the research activity in this field has increased significantly in response to this challenge, leading to a vast body of work in the literature, especially in the last three years. The aim of this paper is to conduct a bibliometric study to provide a global perspective on the current literature in the field, covering the period from 2009 to 2024. A total of 670 publications were retrieved from Web of Science and Scopus, with 57% of them published in the last three years, highlighting the growing interest in the field. This study analyzes the research product, the most relevant journal, the most cited authors and institutions, their collaborative patterns, emerging trends, and gaps in the literature. This contribution will provide an up-to-date analysis of the field, fostering better understanding of the direction of the research and establishing a solid foundation for future studies

Keywords: circular economy (CE); wind turbine (WT); waste; decommissioning; repowering; end-of-life (EOL); supply chain management (SCM); incentives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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