Energy performances and life cycle assessment of an Italian wind farm

Ardente, Fulvio; Beccali, Marco; Cellura, Maurizio; Brano, Valerio Lo

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2006.05.013

Cited by 216 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…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%

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

167

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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: Transportation On-site Construction and Operation And Mainmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

167

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“…The material production (manufacturing) stage was identified to be the primary stage that governs the life cycle GHGs emitted from wind electricity generation systems [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Approximately, 90% of the wind turbine materials were noted to be recyclable [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Approximately, 90% of the wind turbine materials were noted to be recyclable [13]. The use of recyclable materials in wind electricity generation systems considerably reduced the life cycle GHG emissions [9,10,14]. The GHG emissions from wind electricity generation systems were also noted to be mainly influenced by the capacity factor, the lifetime, and the rated power [15,16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from wind electricity generation systems

Kadiyala

Kommalapati

Huque

2016

Int J Energy Environ Eng

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This study characterized and evaluated the life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from different wind electricity generation systems by (a) performing a comprehensive review of the wind electricity generation system life cycle assessment (LCA) studies and (b) statistically evaluating the life cycle GHG emissions (expressed in grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt hour, gCO 2 e/kWh). A categorization index (with unique category codes, formatted as 'axis of rotation-installed location-power generation capacity') was adopted for use in this study to characterize the reviewed wind electricity generation systems. The unique category codes were labeled by integrating the names from the three wind power sub-classifications, i.e., the axis of rotation of the wind turbine 38.67, 11.75, 15.98, 12.9, and 46.4 gCO 2 e/kWh, respectively. The HAWT-ON-I wind electricity generation systems produced the minimum life cycle GHGs than other wind electricity generation systems.

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“…In this regard, it should be mentioned that wind farms have a lower environmental impact in terms of energy than electricity-generation technologies based on fossil fuels. Furthermore, the difference between the energy produced and consumed is positive over the tower's entire life (Crawford, 2009;Guezuraga et al, 2012;Ardente et al, 2008). The social requirement (R 3 ) is used to assess key factors for the social acceptance of wind farms.…”

Section: Sustainability Assessment Model For Wind Towersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-criteria decision-making model for assessing the sustainability index of wind-turbine support systems: application to a new precast concrete alternative

Fuente

Armengou

Pons

et al. 2016

Journal of Civil Engineering and Management

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A multi-criteria decision-making system based on the MIVES method is presented as a model for assessing the global sustainability index scores of existing wind-turbine support systems. This model is specifically designed to discriminate between tower systems in order to minimize the subjectivity of the decision and, thus, facilitate the task of deciding which system is best for a given set of boundary conditions (e.g., height, turbine power, soil conditions) and economic, social and environmental requirements. The model’s versatility is proven by assessing the sustainability index of an innovative new precast concrete tower alternative also described in this paper. As a result of this analysis, some points of improvement in the new system have been detected.

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Energy performances and life cycle assessment of an Italian wind farm

Cited by 216 publications

References 9 publications

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

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

Characterization of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from wind electricity generation systems

Multi-criteria decision-making model for assessing the sustainability index of wind-turbine support systems: application to a new precast concrete alternative

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