April 18, 2005 |
"With life cycle assessments of our wind turbines, we have an
excellent tool to compare the products and estimate how big an advantage our
wind power systems are to the environment."
- Svend Sigaard, President and CEO of Vestas Wind Systems
Like any manufactured item, there is an environmental cost to the manufacture
of renewable energy hardware. Wind turbines, for example, require considerable
raw material inputs and energy to create the final product. In an effort to
quantify these inputs, Danish turbine manufacturer Vestas undertook a life cycle
assessment of their latest wind turbine.
What they found, according to their research, is that one of the company's V90,
3.0 MW offshore wind turbines has to generate electricity for approximately 6.8
months before it produces as much energy as is used during the manufacturing
lifetime. This, they say, means the turbine model earns its own worth more than
35 times during its energy production lifetime.
Furthermore, compared to the V80-2.0 MW offshore wind turbine, the 6.8 months
constitutes an improvement of approximately 2.2 months over the lower capacity
model.
If installed on a good site, the V90-3.0 MW wind turbine will generate
approximately 280,000 MWh in 20 years - thus sparing the environment the impact
of a net volume of approximately 230,000 tons of CO2, as compared to the figures
for energy generated by a coal-fired power station.
Both examples were the results from a life cycle assessment (LCA), which Vestas
completed of a V90-3.0 MW wind turbine in 2004.
A life cycle assessment is both a mapping and an evaluation of the potential
impact of the wind turbine on the external environment throughout its lifetime.
The life cycle assessment for the V90-3.0 MW wind turbine is divided into four
phases.
- The production phase, which covers the period from obtaining the raw materials
to the completion of the wind turbine
- Transport of the wind turbine components and erection of the wind turbine
- Operation and maintenance throughout the 20-year design lifetime of the wind
turbine
- Disposal of the wind turbine.
"The life cycle assessments are used as a natural and important
decision-making tool in product development and in the choice of production
technology," said Svend Sigaard, President and CEO of Vestas Wind Systems.
"With life cycle assessments of our wind turbines, we have an excellent
tool to compare the products and estimate how big an advantage our wind power
systems are to the environment."
Sigaard said the company now plans to make life cycle assessments of all their
wind turbines.
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