Selected Environmental Impact Indicators Assessment of Wind Energy in India Using a Life Cycle Assessment

Abstract

This study focuses on the life cycle assessment (LCA) of an onshore wind farm in India. The study is conducted on 10 Vestas 1.65 MW wind turbines situated in the Karnataka state of India. Following the ISO 14044 standard, SimaPro LCA software is used to model the process. The functional unit is chosen as 1 MWh sent out electricity. The results of the life cycle-based emissions of wind farm are compared with those of the coal power plant. The global warming potential is found to be 11.3 g CO2-eq/MWh for wind power, which is 98.8% lower than that for the coal power plant. A comparison of data available in SimaPro LCA software was carried out with data in GaBi software. There is a small difference between the two databases. This may be due to different boundary and inclusion of input items. Steel, aluminium, and concrete contributed 86%, 84%, 84% and 85% of total CO2, NOx, SO2 and PM2.5 emissions, respectively. Recycling the materials of a wind turbine at the end of its life can reduce the environmental impact. Higher capacity factors can increase the electricity generation with reduced environmental impact. A 22% increase in capacity factor can reduce environmental impact by 19%. In addition, the increase in the life of wind turbines reduces the environmental impact, as a wind turbine only has a few moving parts and requires minimum regular maintenance.