Environmental Product Declaration SWT-3.2-113
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Environmental Product Declaration A clean energy solution – from cradle to grave Onshore wind power plant employing SWT-3.2-113 siemens.com / wind

Assessing the performance of a wind power plant The environmental impact of wind power The world today faces the challenge of meeting growing demand for energy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. One solution is to increase the contribution of renewable energy systems such as wind, sun, or biomass to the electricity mix. Siemens Wind Power is pioneering this approach by offering an extensive wind turbine portfolio that includes the SWT-3.2-113 direct drive turbine. Siemens has performed a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of an onshore wind power plant employing SWT-3.2-113. The LCA...

Designed to deliver clean energy Onshore wind power plant Each wind power plant has specific site constraints that influence the choice of turbine, tower height, foundation size, and infrastructure. This EPD is based on a full-scale LCA of an average European onshore wind power plant with 20 SWT-3.2-113 turbines installed. It includes wind turbine components such as a nacelle, rotor, and tower, as well as the foundation, cables to grid, and substation. The functional unit for this LCA is defined as 1 kWh of electricity delivered to the grid. The identified average wind speed is relative to...

System boundaries for an onshore wind power plant Direct drive conversion Nacelle Blades Power and trafo unit Connecting cables

From cradle to grave Life cycle of a wind power plant The lifecycle has been divided into five main stages: Materials, Manufacturing of the main parts; Installation; Operation and Maintenance; Dismantling, Recycling, and Disposal at the end-of-life. Relevant transport activities and energy consumption were included in each life cycle stage. Life Cycle Stages tl

Materials We identified the types and quantities of materials and energy that had to be extracted and consumed to produce the turbine components and the elements needed to connect the wind power plant to the grid. Manufacturing We collected data from Siemens’ own production sites and from main suppliers. Consumption data for manufacturing as well as waste and subsequent treatment is based primarily on annual manufacturing data from European production sites. Transport of materials to the manufacturing site is included in the data. Installation Components, auxiliary resources, and workers...

Environmental footprint Low greenhouse gas emissions Greenhouse gases such as CO2 and methane contribute to global warming. Electricity produced by wind turbines contributes significantly less to global warming than electricity produced by fossil fuels. During its lifetime, the wind power plant emits less than 1% of the CO2 emitted per kWh by an average power plant using fossil fuels. What is “global warming”? Global warming is an environmental impact caused by the increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Each of these gases radiates different amounts of heat, which...

CO2 emissions from the wind power plant versus global fossil power production (IEA World Energy Outlook, 2012)  forest area During its estimated lifetime the wind power plant produces 5,200,000 MWh and saves 4,500,000 tonnes of CO2, which is equal to the amount of CO2 absorbed by a forest with an area of 160 km2 over 20

Every stage counts Contributions to global warming To examine how much each stage of the wind power plant’s life cycle contributes to global warming, we assessed their specific CO2 emissions (figure below). Percentage of global warming contribution from each life cycle stage (g CO2 eq/kWh) Operation & Maintenance Dismantling & end-of-life The main contributor to global warming is the Material stage (84%) because of emissions during material extraction. There are almost no emissions during wind power plant operation, and there is even an offset to emissions at end-of-life because so many of...

Global warming contribution of main components in the wind power plant (CO2 eq) Substation (1%) Power & Transformer Unit (2% ) Hub (5%) Global warming contribution per material group in the wind power plant (CO2 eq) Other materials (7%) Copper (3%) Iron (4%) Fiberglass (4%)

Taking a holistic view Assessing additional impact categories Environmental sustainability also concerns problems other than climate change; for example, chemical pollution and resource depletion. Electricity produced by a wind power plant can be assessed for different environmental impact categories. Such an assessment shows that focusing solely Definitions of most relevant environmental impact categories Global warming: An environmental impact caused by the increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Mineral extraction: The removal of minerals from the environment,...

Contribution of each Life Cycle Stage to the most relevant impact categories Global warming (kg CO2 eq) Mineral extraction (MJ surplus) Land occupation (m2org.arable) Ecotoxicity (CTUe) Human toxicity, noncarcinogenic (CTUh) Human toxicity, carcinogenic (CTUh) Materials Manufacturing Installation Operation & Maintenance Dismantling & end-of-life Other environmental impacts Planning a new wind power plant includes assessing the environmental impact of the installation and operation phases to minimize negative impacts. Often these assessments focus on noise, birds, bats, and visual impacts....

Recycling turbine materials When wind turbines are dismantled, it is typically not because they have reached end-of-life but because they are replaced with larger turbines. Consequently, most dismantled turbines are refurbished and sold for installation elsewhere. When disposing of wind turbines, recycling is the preferred solution. This not only prevents the materials from being sent to landfills, but also reduces the need for extracting of primary materials. Options for recycling or disposal The metals in the wind power plant components are to a great extent recycled at their end-of-life....