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@ARTICLE{Benitez:1030186,
author = {Benitez, Alicia and Wulf, Christina and Steubing, Bernhard
and Geldermann, Jutta},
title = {{S}cenario-based {LCA} for assessing the future
environmental impacts of wind offshore energy: {A}n
exemplary analysis for a 9.5-{MW} wind turbine in {G}ermany},
journal = {Energy, Sustainability and Society},
volume = {14},
number = {1},
issn = {2192-0567},
address = {Heidelberg},
publisher = {Springer},
reportid = {FZJ-2024-05244},
pages = {49},
year = {2024},
abstract = {Offshore wind energy (OWE) will play a significant role in
achieving climate neutrality. For example, several scenarios
for Germany (e.g., Kopernikus base, Kopernikus 1.5 degree,
Prognos CN65, and CN60) depict substantial OWE annual
installed capacity additions, especially after 2030. This
tendency promotes OWE technology development as deployment
expands, allowing manufacturers to gain expertise and
optimize wind turbine construction. The global trend towards
ever-larger components (e.g., hub height and rotor diameter)
is critical to achieving higher-rated capacities. These
aspects and others, such as wind quality, influence not only
OWE annual electricity production but also its environmental
performance. In addition, future supply chains might reduce
their environmental impacts and enhance OWE climate change
mitigation. In this paper, a prospective life cycle
assessment (pLCA) is developed and applied exemplarily for a
9.5-MW offshore wind turbine (OWT) on the North Sea coast of
Germany for the years 2030 and 2050. Considering that the
current OWTs under construction in Europe have an average
capacity of 10 MW, Germany plans to instal OWTs of 9.5-MW.
This exemplary OWT describes the potential advances for
offshore wind turbines in 2030 and 2050, considering
component scale-up and learning effects. Yet, the
methodology is adaptable to various installed capacities and
regions. This approach allows us to analyse not only the
potential future characteristics of wind turbines, but also
future developments in OWE supply chains. Therefore,
relevant parameters related to OWT construction and
operation (e.g., rotor diameter, hub height, distance to the
shore, lifetime, etc.) as well as prospective life cycle
inventory data for background systems that reflect potential
future developments in the broader economy are considered.
In this way, scenarios (e.g., optimistic, moderate, and
pessimistic) for OWE elucidate the expected environmental
impacts, such as climate change, marine eutrophication, and
abiotic depletion potential, in 2030 and 2050.The findings
describe the variability of the environmental impacts of a
9.5-MW offshore wind turbine representing the technologies
expected to be available in Germany in 2030 and 2050 and
show that climate change impacts could vary between 7 and 18
g CO2-eq per kWh produced in 2030 and between 5 and 17 g
CO2-eq per kWh in 2050. However, marine eutrophication could
experience a significant increase $(100\%$ increase),
depending on the consideration of hydrogen as a fuel in the
electricity mix, as demonstrated in the climate-neutral
scenarios adopted for Germany. Overall, construction
efficiency improvements in 2050 might reduce the required
materials, leading to a $6\%$ decrease in abiotic depletion
potential compared to 2030 values.This paper highlights the
need to consider temporal improvements in LCA studies,
particularly when assessing the environmental impacts of
offshore wind turbines. The complex nature and rapid growth
of offshore wind technology require a comprehensive life
cycle approach to deepen our understanding of its potential
environmental impacts.},
cin = {IEK-STE},
ddc = {333.7},
cid = {I:(DE-Juel1)IEK-STE-20101013},
pnm = {1112 - Societally Feasible Transformation Pathways
(POF4-111)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-1112},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
UT = {WOS:001290252400001},
doi = {10.1186/s13705-024-00474-z},
url = {https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1030186},
}