Environmental Impact of Modern Wind Power under LCA Methodology

Cámara, Eduardo Martínez; Macías, Emilio Jiménez; Fernández, Julio Blanco; Pérez, Mercedes

doi:10.5772/8348

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 41 publications

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“…The next step is the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA), where results from the inventory are converted into environmentally relevant information (Baumann and Tillmann, 2004). Martinez et al (2010) compares no less than seven different methods to perform a LCIA. Sometimes an attempt is made to express the impact on a common scale through weighting or further evaluate the results LCIA.…”

Section: Methodological Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of life cycle assessments on wind energy systems

Davidsson

Höök

Wall³

2012

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose Several life cycle assessments (LCA) of wind energy published in recent years are reviewed to identify methodological differences and underlying assumptions. MethodsA full comparative analysis of 12 studies were undertaken (10 peer-reviewed papers, 1 conference paper, 1 industry report) regarding six fundamental factors (methods used, energy use accounting, quantification of energy production, energy performance and primary energy, natural resources, and recycling). Each factor is discussed in detail to highlight strengths and shortcomings of various approaches. ResultsSeveral potential issues are found concerning the way LCA methods are used for assessing energy performance and environmental impact of wind energy, as well as dealing with natural resource use and depletion. The potential to evaluate natural resource use and depletion impacts from wind energy appears to be poorly exploited or elaborated on in the reviewed studies. Estimations of energy performance and environmental impacts are critically analyzed and found to differ significantly. Conclusions and recommendationsA continued discussion and development of LCA methodology for wind energy and other energy resources are encouraged. Efforts should be made to standardize methods and calculations. Inconsistent use of terminology and concepts among the analyzed studies are found and should be remedied. Different methods are generally used and the results are presented in diverse ways, making it difficult to compare studies with each other, but also with other renewable energy sources.

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Section: Methodological Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%