Life Cycle Environmental Impact of Onshore and Offshore Wind Farms in Texas
1
Center for Energy & Environmental Sustainability, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX 77446, USA
2
Center for Energy & Environmental Sustainability, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX 77446, USA
3
Center for Energy & Environmental Sustainability, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Prairie View A & M University, Prairie View, TX 77446, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2018, 10(6), 2022; https://doi.org/10.3390/su10062022
Received: 21 May 2018 / Revised: 11 June 2018 / Accepted: 12 June 2018 / Published: 14 June 2018
The last decade witnessed a quantum increase in wind energy contribution to the U.S. renewable electricity mix. Although the overall environmental impact of wind energy is miniscule in comparison to fossil-fuel energy, the early stages of the wind energy life cycle have potential for a higher environmental impact. This study attempts to quantify the relative contribution of individual stages toward life cycle impacts by conducting a life cycle assessment with SimaPro® and the Impact 2002+ impact assessment method. A comparative analysis of individual stages at three locations, onshore, shallow-water, and deep-water, in Texas and the gulf coast indicates that material extraction/processing would be the dominant stage with an average impact contribution of 72% for onshore, 58% for shallow-water, and 82% for deep-water across the 15 midpoint impact categories. The payback times for CO2 and energy consumption range from 6 to 14 and 6 to 17 months, respectively, with onshore farms having shorter payback times. The greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) were in the range of 5–7 gCO2eq/kWh for the onshore location, 6–9 CO2eq/kWh for the shallow-water location, and 6–8 CO2eq/kWh for the deep-water location. A sensitivity analysis of the material extraction/processing stage to the electricity sourcing stage indicates that replacement of lignite coal with natural gas or wind would lead to marginal improvements in midpoint impact categories.
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Keywords:
SimaPro; midpoint impact categories; environmental impact; payback time; material extraction/processing
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MDPI and ACS Style
Chipindula, J.; Botlaguduru, V.S.V.; Du, H.; Kommalapati, R.R.; Huque, Z. Life Cycle Environmental Impact of Onshore and Offshore Wind Farms in Texas. Sustainability 2018, 10, 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10062022
AMA Style
Chipindula J, Botlaguduru VSV, Du H, Kommalapati RR, Huque Z. Life Cycle Environmental Impact of Onshore and Offshore Wind Farms in Texas. Sustainability. 2018; 10(6):2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10062022
Chicago/Turabian StyleChipindula, Jesuina, Venkata S.V. Botlaguduru, Hongbo Du, Raghava R. Kommalapati, and Ziaul Huque. 2018. "Life Cycle Environmental Impact of Onshore and Offshore Wind Farms in Texas" Sustainability 10, no. 6: 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10062022
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