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LCA Wind Park Part 1
LCA Wind Park Part 1
Marc Thurnheer
Roman Gohl
Ramon Schnider
Alexander Bchi
Group B2
October 2014
Group B2
TASS
1 ABSTRACT
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Group B2
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2 INTRODUCTION
The energy consumption of human being is rising and rising without an end. This
requirement has to be satisfied. But to reach this goal, a development of energy
production is mandatory. This is absolutely feasible but for an expansion without
large pollutant emission we must use renewable energy.
A typical renewable energy source is wind. There has been a rapid growth in the use
of wind power in recent years because this renewable energy source is able to
convert wind energy into electricity without significant emissions or resource
consumption during operation. The technology of wind power has improved steadily
and costs have been highly reduced. So all in all wind is a sufficient energy carrier
and if you construct a wind power plant offshore, not many people are affected by
it. But we also have to prove the environmental impact. An optional way to prove
this impact is a Life cycle analysis.
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Figure 1:
Horizontal axis wind turbine of the alpha ventus wind park
OF THE
LIFE
CYCLE ANALYSIS
4.2 DIMENSIONS
Alpha ventus is located in the North Sea about 60 kilometers away from the
German coast. The purpose of the plant is to generate green energy for the
industry and households in the northern part of Germany. The project
consists of 12 horizontal wind turbines which are bundled into a wind farm.
Every wind turbine performs an electric output of 5 MW which is equal to a
total of 60 MW for the whole wind power station. The electricity generated by
the wind turbines is summarized offshore and brought onshore by an electric
cable. The feed cable of the offshore wind park is connected onshore to the
existing electricity grid.
This project should provide the costumers with ecological energy for a
duration of a minimum of 20 years. The process from offshore wind energy to
electrical energy in the households in Germany is starting with the
convention of wind energy into mechanical and finally into energy to
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electrical power. This process happens in the inside of the wind turbine. The
next step is the transformation of the energy for the transmission by cable to
another transmission station onshore. In the last step the energy will be
injected in the existing electricity grid.
Table 1
General data about the wind farm.
Functional unit
1 kWh
Delivered to the
industry and
households
Lifetime
20 Years
The average technical
lifetime of the whole
wind farm.
Windmills in the farm
12
The number of power
plants.
Distance from shore
62 km
The distance of the
wind farm to the shore.
Nominal power
5 MW
The power of one wind
turbine.
Figure 1
A map of the existing wind power plant alpha ventus.
4.3 SIMPLIFICATIONS
AND ASSUMPTIONS
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The LCA will end on the existing power grid, because it is already available
and it still has the same task with the new wind power plant. Maintenance
will not be included because the expenditure is not predictable. The material
which will be used should be from the surrounding area.
Another assumption is that the wind farm consists not only of raw materials
but some parts are constructed out of recycled material. So in the end, the
part which comes from recycling material at the beginning of the life cycle, is
also going back into other new projects and processes at the end of the
lifetime of the wind turbine.
Because the transport routes are also very difficult to track these are also
accepted. The onshore transports are realized with trains, trucks or as freight
and the offshore transports are realized by ships.
Figure 2:
Transport
4.4
OBJECTIVE
vehicles
OF THE
LIFE
CYCLE ANALYSIS
Based on the "material flow analysis" the ecological costs and impact of the
production, operation and disposal of a horizontal wind axis turbine will be
analyzed in respond to their lifetime. The most important aspects of the Life
Cycle Analysis are going to be emerged and interpreted.
The results of the LCA will be compared with a reference system. In the
reference system there should be a CO 2 balance for the generation of 1 kWh
of electricity in conventional manner. We would like to choose the present
Swiss electricity mix, so we would have a direct comparison of environmental
impacts of Swiss energy production. In case we find a dataset of it. Another
goal which is going to be mentioned is the relation between input and output
from the system. An interesting object in the LCA is the percentage of
recycling material in the input and output.
As the environmental indicator we choose carbon dioxide, because it has the
biggest influence on the global warming. The CO 2 emission from the
manufacturing, usage and recycling will be summarized and analysed. The
goal in the end is to identify which process leads to the biggest global
warming potential. Maybe we will also look at an additional one, if there is
another environmental indicator affecting on the environment. But in this
case we will have to make the calculation and evaluation first.
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4.6 FLOW
CHART
The flow chart is split in three life cycle phases. The first part contains the
production phase which is the biggest part with the most processes. After the
production there is the use phase. In the use phase, there is only the
production operation time which is estimated to have a small influence on
the entire life cycle, there are not needed any resources at all.
The last stage is the end of life phase. This period includes demolition and
recycling. The system boundary is around all these three phase.
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Figure 3
The Flow chart of the project.
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