The foundation protocols in the UGA wind standards were updated on 28 September 2026. They are now named the Onshore Foundation Framework (UGA-00004040081002) and the Offshore Foundation Framework (UGA-00004040082002).

Both protocols now provide for reuse. A foundation intended to carry more than one turbine generation states its design life and load basis at design, and keeps a condition record from first installation that passes with it to every later owner and site. Reuse is assessed before material recovery wherever it is technically viable, and elements removed for reinstallation at another site count as fully removed from the original one.

Both protocols also require a removal method statement before decommissioning. On land, it compares blasting, hydraulic breaking, sawing and the extraction of piles, and sets out the noise, vibration, dust, exhaust emissions and effects on soil and water of each. At sea, it covers the cutting methods, vessels and seabed disturbance involved. The method that causes the least harm consistent with full removal has to be chosen, and its effects mitigated and monitored.

The onshore protocol keeps full removal of foundation concrete and steel as the rule. The only exception is partial removal where an independent comparative environmental assessment shows that full removal would do greater lasting harm, as on deep peat or where local hydrology is fragile. Cost alone never qualifies.

The update draws on the analysis in Foundations Designed for Reuse, the second part of CEI’s series on wind infrastructure.

Onshore Foundation Framework → Offshore Foundation Framework

Image: completed wind turbine foundation with its anchor bolts, Kleinlohma wind farm, Thuringia, Germany, May 2026. Photo: Thuringius, public domain (CC0), via Wikimedia Commons.