Most onshore wind foundations are designed to serve a single turbine. This article sets out what a reusable foundation has to show, and where European approval, waste law and decommissioning securities stand in the way.

More than 58,000 large dams operate worldwide, many approaching or exceeding their original design horizons. While engineering methodologies for dismantling or stabilization are well established, the governance architectures required to execute decommissioning coherently at scale remain underdeveloped.

Removal rules for onshore wind foundations differ sharply between jurisdictions. This article sets out a recovery baseline that ranks reuse above recycling, and the changes to approval and permitting needed to make it hold.