Life cycle assessment of a floating offshore wind turbine

Weinzettel, Jan; Reenaas, Marte; Solli, Christian; Hertwich, Edgar G.

doi:10.1016/j.renene.2008.04.004

Cited by 185 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Table 2 compares human toxicity and freshwater and terrestrial eco-toxicity indicator results from five studies. Marine aquatic eco-toxicity is not included due to weaknesses in current impact assessment methods [63], and because two of the cited studies [22,35] do not address this impact category. One of the publications [21] cited in Table 2 report results that are up to three orders of magnitude smaller than those from the other studies.…”

Section: Scope Assumptions and Methodologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3) stand out with large relative contributions from transportation (34% of GHG emissions are due to transportation) -this could possibly be related to the choice of concrete as tower material in [34], as opposed to (lighter) tubular steel towers modeled in most other studies. Emissions of heavy metals in manufacturing processes is the primary cause of toxicity indicator results [21,22,35]. Fig.…”

Section: Contribution Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Also, there is a fairly large set of quantifications on air pollutants typically connected with the burning of fossil fuels (e.g., NOx, SO2) and associated impact categories (acidification, eutrophication, photochemical oxidant formation, and to a lesser extent, particulate matter). In our view, given the material intensive nature of wind power compared to fossil alternatives [69], and that toxic releases to the environment are known to originate from materials manufacturing [21,22,35], the most serious gap in knowledge is the insufficient understanding of toxic emissions generated in the life cycle of wind power systems. From the viewpoint of the LCA practitioner, assessing toxic effects may be difficult because: i) emissions data on toxic substances is missing or is incomplete, and ii) current impact assessment methods for toxicity produce contradictory results and hence lack robustness [13,70].…”

Section: Impact Category Coveragementioning

confidence: 99%

“…LCA studies either neglect replacement of parts (e.g., [37,40]) or variably assume that certain shares of components must be replaced (e.g., [27] assumes 50% gearbox replacement during lifetime, [36] one blade and 15% generator replacement, and [35] 5% complete wind turbine replacement). One study develops a high-maintenance scenario in which 1 generator, 1 gearbox and 1 set of blades requires replacement [32].…”

Section: Transportation On-site Construction and Operation And Mainmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing the life cycle environmental impacts of wind power: A review of present knowledge and research needs

Arvesen

Hertwich

2012

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

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178

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We critically review present knowledge of the life cycle environmental impacts of wind power.We find that the current body of life cycle assessments (LCA) of wind power provides a fairly good overall understanding of fossil energy use and associated pollution; our survey of results that appear in existing literature give mean values (± standard deviation) of, e.g., 0.060 (±0.058) kWh energy used and 19 (±13) g CO 2 e emitted per kWh electricity, suggesting good environmental performance vis-à-vis fossil-based power. Total emissions of onshore and offshore wind farms are comparable. The bulk of emissions generally occur in the production of components; onshore, the wind turbine dominates, while offshore, the substructure becomes relatively more important. Strong positive effects of scale are present in the lower end of the turbine size spectrum, but there is no clear evidence for such effects for MW-sized units. We identify weaknesses and gaps in knowledge that future research may address. This includes poorly understood impacts in categories of toxicity and resource depletion, lack of empirical basis for assumptions about replacement of parts, and apparent lack of detailed considerations of offshore operations for wind farms in ocean waters. We argue that applications of the avoided burden method to model recycling benefits generally lack transparency and may be inconsistent.Assumed capacity factor values are generally higher than current mean realized values. Finally, we discuss the need for LCA research to move beyond unit-based assessments in order to address temporal aspects and the scale of impacts.

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Section: Scope Assumptions and Methodologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Contribution Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Impact Category Coveragementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Transportation On-site Construction and Operation And Mainmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing the life cycle environmental impacts of wind power: A review of present knowledge and research needs

Arvesen

Hertwich

2012

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

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178

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“…According to the World Wind Energy Association (2014), wind energy technology 30 has steadily improved and costs have declined. This technological progress is obvious in the 31 movement to better wind conditions and shift to higher nominal power of wind turbines (Wang and 32 Sun, 2012; Weinzettel et al, 2009). However, all renewable systems for converting energy into 33 usable forms such as electricity have environmental impacts associated with them (Davidsson et al,34 2012; Kelly et al, 2014) and is an important issue in mainstream debate.…”

Section: Introduction 22mentioning

confidence: 99%