A rapidly growing number of people around the world are becoming concerned about environmental issues, including depletion of natural resources, emissions and pollution, deforestation and soil degradation. The environmental performance of products, services and process has become one of the key issues in today’s world and it is important to examine ways in which negative effects on the environment are assessed. A Life cycle assessment (LCA), also known as a cradle to grave analysis, is an inventory of all environmental impact of a product, process or service within its complete lifecycle. An LCA includes a recovery of the resources used in the production through the utilization to the dismantling and disposal of the product.
This research uses life cycle assessment (LCA) to better understand the energy and environmental performance of wind turbine system. The results of the LCA are used to provide an effective and accurate means for evaluating greenhouse gas emission reduction strategies.
The assessment of wind power includes four different wind turbines with power rates between 30 kW and 800 kW operating in Switzerland and two wind turbines assumed representative for European conditions - 800 kW onshore and 2 MW offshore. The inventory takes into account the construction of the plants including the connection to the electric grid and the actual wind conditions at each site in Switzerland. Average European capacity factors have been assumed for the European plants. Eventually necessary backup electricity systems are not included in the analysis.
Material consumption for the main parts of the wind turbines gives the dominant contributions to the cumulative results for electricity production. The complex installation of offshore turbines, with high requirements of concrete for the foundation and the assumption of a shorter lifetime compared to onshore foundations, compensate the advantage of increased offshore wind speeds. The differences for environmental burdens of wind power basically depend upon the capacity factor of the plants, the lifetime of the infrastructure, and the rated power. The higher these factors, the more reduced the environmental burdens are.
Considering the steady growth of the size of wind turbines in Europe, the development of new designs, and the exploitation of offshore location with deeper waters than analyzed in this study, the inventory for wind power plants may need to be updated in the future.

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