Research on Emissions Reduction Strategy of Wind Turbine Based on Life Cycle Assessment

Wind power is usually considered a clean energy source, but some components of wind power products have a large load on the environment when analysing the supply chain, especially the production of the primary equipment in the power generation system. From the perspective of the supply chain, a life cycle assessment was carried out to evaluate the carbon footprint of a 2 MW wind turbine during its entire life cycle, including the manufacturing stage, transportation stage, operational stage, and disposal stage. CO2 emissions and energy payback time are used as the main objective to compute environmental impact of the wind turbine in this article. The research shows that the largest component of the carbon footprint of wind turbine comes from the manufacturing stage, which contributes 91.71% of the carbon during the entire life cycle. The environmental impact produced during the disposal stage is significantly important to the research due to the recycling of the metal components. The disposal stage contributes −10.53% of the total carbon footprint. And the energy payback time is about 1.08 years. We found that the recovery rate of metal materials in the disposal stage and capacity of wind turbine are two key factors influencing carbon emissions of wind turbine. Additionally, reducing material consumption and adopting more reusable materials can greatly reduce carbon emissions associated with wind turbine during its whole life cycle, making wind turbine cleaner and more efficient.