Life Cycle Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emission Assessment of a Wind Turbine Installed in Northeast of Iran

摘要

At the present, Iran’s policy-makers are interested in renewable energy development thus in the recent years, the use of renewable energies, especially wind energy for electricity generation has been highly invested. Although wind technology produces no emissions during operation nevertheless there is some environmental impact associated with the wind energy development during the entire life cycle of the plant; from manufacturing and production of the parts to decommissioning of the wind farm. Therefore evaluation of the life cycle energy and greenhouse gas emission of the wind turbine account as an important factor in promoting this type of renewable. This paper concentrates on total life cycle energy consumption assessment and energy payback time of a typical onshore Vestas V47-660KW wind turbine installed in Binaloud wind farm in the northeast of Iran. The life cycle energy consumption of the wind turbine from manufacturing of the components to decommissioning and recycling of the parts were considered. The total energy consumption by the turbine over its life cycle was evaluated as 3233 GJ. For evaluation of energy payback time, 4 different plant operation scenarios are considered. Results indicated that under worst case; where both 2% turbine annual degradation and 30% grid curtailment is considered, the wind farm can retain the life cycle energy consumption within less than 14 months of the designed 20 year operation period. The outcome of this study could be used as a reliable data to promote more sustainable policies in order to support wind energy and generate wind farms similar to Binaloud in another part of the country.