Life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the generation of wind and hydro power

Raadal, Hanne Lerche; Gagnon, Luc; Modahl, Ingunn Saur; Hanssen, Ole Jørgen

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2011.05.001

Cited by 209 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…3; see also discussion in previous LCA reviews [5,7]). Generally, emissions associated with transportation are found to be negligible or of minor importance, though they sometimes are relatively more important for NMVOC and NOx emissions.…”

Section: Contribution Analysismentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Kubiszewski and colleagues [6] and Raadal and colleagues [7] show evidence of energy use and GHG emissions decreasing with growing wind turbine size, but in the former case it remains unanswered to what extent the trend continues when moving into the MW size spectrum, and in both cases it appears that the practice of surveying old and, Hertwich [18,19]. The size of the sample representing hybrid LCA in Fig.…”

Section: Effects Of Wind Turbine Size and Methods For Life Cycle Invenmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Discrepancies between studies can likely be explained by a combination of actual differences in the systems studied (e.g., small versus large wind turbines), key assumptions (e.g., capacity factor and lifetime), data inconsistencies (e.g., emission intensities of materials), and differences in methodologies and approaches (e.g., process-LCA or hybrid IO-LCA, accounting of recycling benefits). Previous LCA reviews [1,5,7] have duly noted that the large gap between low and high values limit the usefulness of results to decision-makers, and that compliance with some standardized sets of methods and assumptions in future analyses would be advantageous.…”

Section: Final Remarks and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Lenzen 2001. Kubiszewski and colleagues [6] and Raadal and colleagues [7] extend the work of Lenzen and Munksgaard [5], adding additional analyses, focusing on energy demand and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, respectively. In another review in the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change [1,8], 126 estimates from 49 studies are surveyed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The present LCA review aims to supplement the previous assessments, providing new surveys and analyses of results as well as qualitative discussions. In particular, we attempt to make the following original contributions: i) taking a broader view of environmental impacts, focusing not only on cumulative energy demand and GHG emissions [5][6][7], but on a wider set of impact categories assessed in the LCA literature; ii) discussing important aspects that are not sufficiently treated in previous LCA reviews, including capacity factor assumptions, modeling of recycling benefits, techniques for calculating life cycle inventories (process-LCA or hybrid LCA), and static versus future-oriented LCA; iii) critically assessing the scope and quality of existing studies, identifying areas that are well understood as well as important knowledge gaps; and iv)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

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

172

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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: Contribution Analysismentioning

confidence: 88%

Section: Effects Of Wind Turbine Size and Methods For Life Cycle Invenmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Final Remarks and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

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

172

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Life Cycle Assessment of Wind Power Generation System

Yang

Chen

2015

Handbook of Clean Energy Systems

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Wind power is experiencing an unprecedented development in China. It is regarded a clean energy alternative as no emissions are generated in electricity production process. However, the material‐intensive production of wind turbines is associated with environmental releases. Therefore, assessing the environmental impacts of wind power generation systems involves not only power production process but also all related processes. Life cycle assessment ( LCA ) considering all environmental emissions in the whole lifetime of the wind power generation system is proven a powerful tool to estimate the real environmental costs of wind power and can provide information for companies, local resident, and government officials about the environmental implications of wind power generation technology. A case of typical wind power generation system was shown to demonstrate the procedures of LCA . However, LCA in wind power generation systems in the current stage still has some issues to be solved, represented as time‐varying factors, vague definition of system boundary and standardization, and so on. In addition to improving life cycle analysis to make the assessment more precise and feasible, the scope of wind power generation should be extended to life cycle sustainability evaluation so as to give an overview of the wind power generation system and shed lights on development pathway design.

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Hydropower: A Renewable Energy Resource for Sustainability in Terms of Climate Change and Environmental Protection

Siri

Mondal

Das

2020

The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry

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Life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the generation of wind and hydro power

Cited by 209 publications

References 19 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

Life Cycle Assessment of Wind Power Generation System

Hydropower: A Renewable Energy Resource for Sustainability in Terms of Climate Change and Environmental Protection

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