The GHG Intensities of Wind Power Plants in China from a Life-Cycle Perspective: The Impacts of Geographical Location, Turbine Technology and Management Level

Abstract

Presented in this study is a comparative life cycle assessment of 60 wind plant systems’ GHG intensities (49 of onshore and 11 of offshore) in China with regard to different geographical location, turbine technology and management level. As expected, geographical location and turbine technology affect the results marginally. The result shows that the life-cycle GHG intensities of onshore and offshore cases are 5.84–16.71 g CO2eq/kWh and 13.30–29.45 g CO2eq/kWh, respectively, which could be decreased by 36.41% and 41.30% when recycling materials are considered. With wind power density increasing, the GHG intensities of onshore cases tend to decline, but for offshore cases, the larger GHG intensity is as the offshore distance increases. The GHG intensities of onshore cases present a decreasing trend along with the technical advancement, and offshore counterparts is around 65% higher than the onshore cases in terms of wind turbines rated at more than 3 MW. The enlarging of offshore turbine size does not necessarily bring marginal benefit as onshore counterparts due to the increasing cost from construction and maintenance. After changing the functional unit to 1 kWh on-grid electricity (practical), the highest GHG intensities of Gansu province increase to 17.94 g CO2eq/kWh, same as other wind resource rich provinces, which significantly offsets their wind resource endowment. The results obtained in this study also highlight the necessity for policy interventions in China to enhance resource exploration efficiency and promote robust and sustainable development of the wind power industry.