The Life Cycle Accounting Of CO₂Emissions For Wind, PV And Biomass Power Generation In China

A complete LCA accounting system is established according to ISO’s LCA seriesfor the quantitative study of wind, PV and biomass power generation emission intensityin their life cycles. Then this system is applied in an wind farm, an photovoltaic powerstation and a biomass power plant for practicing. Accounting process includesdelimiting system boundaries, setting parameters and accounting of each step.The life cycle of the wind farm is divided into five stages, wind turbine production,wind turbine transportation, building materials production and transportation,construction, operation and disposal. Accounting results show that the life cycleemissions intensity of this wind farm is9.47gCO₂/kWh, and the energy return ratio is37.96. Energy consumption and CO₂emissions from the stage of wind turbineproduction are the highest among all stages of the life cycle, and the shares are68.23%and67.18%respectively. The life cycle of photovoltaic power plant is divided into rawmaterials production, cell production, assembly of PV modules, componentstransportation and disposal stages. Accounting results show that the life cycle emissionsintensity of photovoltaic power plant is292.4gCO₂/kWh, and the energy return ratio is6.71. Energy consumption and CO₂emissions from the stage of raw materialsproduction are the highest among all stages of the life cycle, and the shares are72.84%and71.79%respectively. The CO₂absorption when plants growing is not included inthe life cycle of biomass plant. Accounting results show that the life cycle emissionsintensity of this biomass power plant is527gCO₂/kWhUnder the same condition which means installed capacity is50MW and designinglife is20years, the CO₂emissions reduction of these three power plants are2.1987million tons,86,150tons and1.998million tons. Wind power has the highest potentialof emission reduction, and biomass power is similar with the wind power with thephotovoltaic power generation owning the smallest.