Abstract
The intensive increase of global warming every year affects our world negatively and severely. The use of renewable energy sources has gained importance in reducing and eliminating the effect of global warming. To this end, new technologies are being developed to facilitate the use of these resources. One of these technological developments is the floating wind turbine. In order to evaluate the respective environmental footprint of these systems, a life cycle assessment (LCA) is herein applied. In this study, the environmental impact of floating wind turbines is investigated using a life cycle assessment approach and the results are compared with the respective ones of onshore and jacket offshore wind turbines of the same power capacity. The studied floating wind turbine has a square foundation that is open at its centre and is connected to the seabed with a synthetic fibre-nylon anchorage system. The environmental impact of all life cycles of such a structure, i.e., the manufacture, the operation, the disposal, and the recycling stages of the wind turbines, has been evaluated. For these floating wind turbines, it has been found that the greatest environmental impact corresponds to the manufacturing stage, whilst the global warming potential and the energy payback time of a 2 MW floating wind turbine of a barge-type platform is higher than that of the onshore, the jacket offshore (2 MW) and the floating (5 MW) wind turbines on a sway floating platform.
Highlights
Along with the design of these new wind turbine structures, the carbon emissions emitted during their manufacture, installation, operation, and disposal must be considered. Given these new turbine structures, this study focuses on the environmental impacts of floating wind turbines using the life cycle assessment methodology
In the light of the literature review, the present study aims to analyse the environmental impacts of the barge-type floating wind turbine and compare it to the environmental
Abiotic depletion potential for fossil fuels focused on the non-renewable resource is measured in MJ; Global warming potential is related to CO2 emissions measured in CO2 -equivalent;
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Despite the fact that progress is being made towards the seventh UN sustainable development goal [1], with encouraging signs that energy is becoming more sustainable and widely available, the world still relies on traditional fossil energy The latter is the dominant contributor to climate change, accounting for around 60% of the total global greenhouse gases emissions [1]. Wind energy stands as a prominent renewable source that encourages the development of innovative wind energy systems with enhanced output generation capacity. Such new developments are floating wind turbines or very tall onshore turbines [2]. Given these new turbine structures, this study focuses on the environmental impacts of floating wind turbines using the life cycle assessment methodology
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