Life cycle assessment of wind turbine systems: A statistical synthesis approach to address greenhouse gas emissions

Reducing the carbon footprint and transitioning towards cost-effective, cleaner energy sources are among the most critical engineering challenges of the 21st century. Climate change modeling scenarios increasingly depend on greener technologies to limit global warming to below 2.0 °C. Wind power, along with other renewable energy technologies, plays a pivotal role in realizing these goals. This study presents a comprehensive review of the environmental impacts of wind power through the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies. It integrates findings from various LCA studies and uses statistical comparisons and graphical analysis to identify key influencing factors such as turbine size, geographical location, and methodological variations that drive differences in reported environmental impacts. These insights are essential for standardizing evaluations and assuring precise carbon footprint for global estimations, therefore informing more dependable mitigation plans. Wind power demonstrates favorable environmental outcomes compared to fossil fuels, however, emission sources, particularly during wind turbines component production, and the scale of the wind farms are identified as the key factors that influence the choice between onshore and offshore wind farms. Additionally, the study identifies key gaps in current research, including resource depletion, toxicity, and uncertainties related to component replacement and offshore operations, where environmental impacts remain poorly understood. Building upon these, the study emphasizes the necessity of enhancing LCA approaches to more effectively incorporate temporal and impact scale elements by creating more precise, unit-based measures.