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

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, gCO2e/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 [horizontal axis wind turbine (HAWT), vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT)], the location of the installation [onshore (ON), offshore (OFF)], and the electricity production capacity [small (S), intermediate (I), large (L)]. The characterized wind electricity generation systems were statistically evaluated to assess the reduction in life cycle GHG emissions. A total of five unique categorization codes (HAWT-ON-S, HAWT-ON-I, HAWT-ON-L, HAWT-OFF-L, VAWT-ON-S) were designated to the 29 wind electricity generation LCA studies (representing 74 wind system cases) using the proposed categorization index. The mean life cycle GHG emissions resulting from the use of HAWT-ON-S (N = 3), HAWT-ON-I (N = 4), HAWT-ON-L (N = 58), HAWT-OFF-L (N = 8), and VAWT-ON-S (N = 1) wind electricity generation systems are 38.67, 11.75, 15.98, 12.9, and 46.4 gCO2e/kWh, respectively. The HAWT-ON-I wind electricity generation systems produced the minimum life cycle GHGs than other wind electricity generation systems. © 2016, The Author(s).