Jimmy Oliapuram

Marc Thurnheer
Roman Gohl
Ramon Schnider
Alexander Bchi
Group B2
October 2014

TASS Report 1 - Target and conditions

Life cycle assessment of a wind

farm

Group B2

TASS

1 ABSTRACT

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2 INTRODUCTION
The energy consumption of human being is rising and rising without an end. This
requirement has to be satisfied. But to reach this goal, a development of energy
production is mandatory. This is absolutely feasible but for an expansion without
large pollutant emission we must use renewable energy.
A typical renewable energy source is wind. There has been a rapid growth in the use
of wind power in recent years because this renewable energy source is able to
convert wind energy into electricity without significant emissions or resource
consumption during operation. The technology of wind power has improved steadily
and costs have been highly reduced. So all in all wind is a sufficient energy carrier
and if you construct a wind power plant offshore, not many people are affected by
it. But we also have to prove the environmental impact. An optional way to prove
this impact is a Life cycle analysis.

3 THE LCA MODEL

The LCA model has been developed with the purpose of being able to assess all the
energy used and the related emissions to produce different energy production
technologies. This information can be important, especially for the renewable
technologies, where it often is mentioned that the energy used for the production is
not paid back during lifetime of technology.
The values of energy and emissions from the materials which are used in the LCA
stand for the total lifecycle of the material. So the sum is composed by producing,
processing, working up, transporting and disposing of the materials. The system
boundaries have an important impact on the LCA. You are able to choose on which
part of the product you are looking at with the setting of the system boundaries.
With the LCA model you also have the possibility to check the energy production on
pollutant, material disposal and waste generation.
All the data sets which are used for the LCA are from the website ecoinvent.ch. On
the basis of those data sets the calculation are made with the program SIMAPRO.

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Figure 1:
Horizontal axis wind turbine of the alpha ventus wind park

4 GOAL AND BASIC PARAMETERS

4.1 SCOPE

OF THE

LIFE

CYCLE ANALYSIS

This paper presents a life cycle analysis of electricity generation by the

offshore wind power plant alpha ventus. The area we are looking at is
located in the north of Germany. The time frame of the LCA is limited to 20
years. We will split the project into manufacturing, usage and recycling.
The technology used in the alpha ventus wind farm is called horizontal wind
axis turbine and is the usually used wind turbine. The main function is to
transform kinetic wind energy into electricity. So when the rotor, driven by
the wind, is starting to rotate, kinetic energy is converted into electrical
energy by a generator.

4.2 DIMENSIONS
Alpha ventus is located in the North Sea about 60 kilometers away from the
German coast. The purpose of the plant is to generate green energy for the
industry and households in the northern part of Germany. The project
consists of 12 horizontal wind turbines which are bundled into a wind farm.
Every wind turbine performs an electric output of 5 MW which is equal to a
total of 60 MW for the whole wind power station. The electricity generated by
the wind turbines is summarized offshore and brought onshore by an electric
cable. The feed cable of the offshore wind park is connected onshore to the
existing electricity grid.
This project should provide the costumers with ecological energy for a
duration of a minimum of 20 years. The process from offshore wind energy to
electrical energy in the households in Germany is starting with the
convention of wind energy into mechanical and finally into energy to
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electrical power. This process happens in the inside of the wind turbine. The
next step is the transformation of the energy for the transmission by cable to
another transmission station onshore. In the last step the energy will be
injected in the existing electricity grid.
Table 1
General data about the wind farm.
Functional unit
1 kWh
Delivered to the
industry and
households
Lifetime
20 Years
The average technical
lifetime of the whole
wind farm.
Windmills in the farm
12
The number of power
plants.
Distance from shore
62 km
The distance of the
wind farm to the shore.
Nominal power
5 MW
The power of one wind
turbine.

Figure 1
A map of the existing wind power plant alpha ventus.

4.3 SIMPLIFICATIONS

AND ASSUMPTIONS

The annually produced energy should be assumed simply based on data

from the internet (like perhaps operating hours and wind speed, or with
existing datasets from alpha ventus). In addition the will be simplifications
for the production, for example how much m 3 of concrete and steel are used
for the base and the rotor. Also technical data of the existing wind turbines in
alpha ventus can be used for the calculations.
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The LCA will end on the existing power grid, because it is already available
and it still has the same task with the new wind power plant. Maintenance
will not be included because the expenditure is not predictable. The material
which will be used should be from the surrounding area.
Another assumption is that the wind farm consists not only of raw materials
but some parts are constructed out of recycled material. So in the end, the
part which comes from recycling material at the beginning of the life cycle, is
also going back into other new projects and processes at the end of the
lifetime of the wind turbine.
Because the transport routes are also very difficult to track these are also
accepted. The onshore transports are realized with trains, trucks or as freight
and the offshore transports are realized by ships.

Figure 2:
Transport

4.4
OBJECTIVE

vehicles

OF THE

LIFE

CYCLE ANALYSIS

Based on the "material flow analysis" the ecological costs and impact of the
production, operation and disposal of a horizontal wind axis turbine will be
analyzed in respond to their lifetime. The most important aspects of the Life
Cycle Analysis are going to be emerged and interpreted.
The results of the LCA will be compared with a reference system. In the
reference system there should be a CO 2 balance for the generation of 1 kWh
of electricity in conventional manner. We would like to choose the present
Swiss electricity mix, so we would have a direct comparison of environmental
impacts of Swiss energy production. In case we find a dataset of it. Another
goal which is going to be mentioned is the relation between input and output
from the system. An interesting object in the LCA is the percentage of
recycling material in the input and output.
As the environmental indicator we choose carbon dioxide, because it has the
biggest influence on the global warming. The CO 2 emission from the
manufacturing, usage and recycling will be summarized and analysed. The
goal in the end is to identify which process leads to the biggest global
warming potential. Maybe we will also look at an additional one, if there is
another environmental indicator affecting on the environment. But in this
case we will have to make the calculation and evaluation first.

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4.5 FUNCTIONAL UNIT

The wind farm alpha ventus has a performance of 60 MW. The calculation of
the energy production will be figured out in an additional part of the Life
Cycle Analysis. So the functional unit is defined on 1 kWh of electricity. The
reason for this decision is the simplicity. With this functional unit you are able
to make easy comparison with other power plants. For example you get the
possibility to benefit from advantages according to the Swiss electricity mix
very easily because you have the same amount of the end product.

4.6 FLOW

CHART

The flow chart is split in three life cycle phases. The first part contains the
production phase which is the biggest part with the most processes. After the
production there is the use phase. In the use phase, there is only the
production operation time which is estimated to have a small influence on
the entire life cycle, there are not needed any resources at all.
The last stage is the end of life phase. This period includes demolition and
recycling. The system boundary is around all these three phase.

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Figure 3
The Flow chart of the project.

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