IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v16y2023i4p1750-d1063605.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life-Cycle Assessment of a Multi-Megawatt Airborne Wind Energy System

Author

Listed:
  • Luuk van Hagen

    (Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2629 HS Delft, The Netherlands)

  • Kristian Petrick

    (Airborne Wind Europe, Avenue de la Renaissance 1, 1000 Brussels, Belgium)

  • Stefan Wilhelm

    (Ampyx Power B.V., Lulofsstraat 55, Unit 13, 2521 AL The Hague, The Netherlands
    Current address: Enpal GmbH, Koppenstr. 8, 10243 Berlin, Germany.)

  • Roland Schmehl

    (Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2629 HS Delft, The Netherlands)

Abstract

A key motivation for airborne wind energy is its potential to reduce the amount of material required for the generation of renewable energy. On the other hand, the materials used for airborne systems’ components are generally linked to higher environmental impacts. This study presents comparative life-cycle analyses for future multi-megawatt airborne wind energy systems and conventional wind turbines, with both technologies operating in the same farm configuration and under matching environmental conditions. The analyses quantify the global warming potential and cumulative energy demand of the emerging and established wind energy technologies. The cumulative energy demand is subsequently also used to determine the energy payback time and the energy return on investment. The selected airborne wind energy system is based on the design of Ampyx Power, using a fixed-wing aircraft that is tethered to a generator on the ground. The conventional wind turbine is primarily based on the NREL 5 MW reference turbine. The results confirm that an airborne wind energy system uses significantly less material and generates electricity at notably lower impacts than the conventional wind turbine. Furthermore, the impacts of the wind turbine depend strongly on the local environmental conditions, while the impacts of the airborne wind energy system show only a minimal dependency. Airborne wind energy is most advantageous for operation at unfavourable environmental conditions for conventional systems, where the turbines require a large hub height.

Suggested Citation

  • Luuk van Hagen & Kristian Petrick & Stefan Wilhelm & Roland Schmehl, 2023. "Life-Cycle Assessment of a Multi-Megawatt Airborne Wind Energy System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-23, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:4:p:1750-:d:1063605
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/4/1750/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/4/1750/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cherubini, Antonello & Vertechy, Rocco & Fontana, Marco, 2016. "Simplified model of offshore Airborne Wind Energy Converters," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 465-473.
    2. Fechner, Uwe & van der Vlugt, Rolf & Schreuder, Edwin & Schmehl, Roland, 2015. "Dynamic model of a pumping kite power system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 705-716.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Salari, Mahdi Ebrahimi & Coleman, Joseph & Toal, Daniel, 2019. "Analysis of direct interconnection technique for offshore airborne wind energy systems under normal and fault conditions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 284-296.
    2. Mostafa A. Rushdi & Ahmad A. Rushdi & Tarek N. Dief & Amr M. Halawa & Shigeo Yoshida & Roland Schmehl, 2020. "Power Prediction of Airborne Wind Energy Systems Using Multivariate Machine Learning," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-23, May.
    3. Liu, Zhe & Zhao, Yi & Zhou, Yuerong & Guan, Faming, 2020. "Modeling, simulation and test results analysis of tethered undersea kite based on bead model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 1314-1326.
    4. Malz, E.C. & Koenemann, J. & Sieberling, S. & Gros, S., 2019. "A reference model for airborne wind energy systems for optimization and control," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 1004-1011.
    5. Iván Castro-Fernández & Ricardo Borobia-Moreno & Rauno Cavallaro & Gonzalo Sánchez-Arriaga, 2021. "Three-Dimensional Unsteady Aerodynamic Analysis of a Rigid-Framed Delta Kite Applied to Airborne Wind Energy," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-17, December.
    6. Wang, Yingguang & Wang, Lifu, 2018. "Towards realistically predicting the power outputs of wave energy converters: Nonlinear simulation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 120-128.
    7. Dragomir, George & Șerban, Alexandru & Năstase, Gabriel & Brezeanu, Alin Ionuț, 2016. "Wind energy in Romania: A review from 2009 to 2016," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 129-143.
    8. Helena Schmidt & Gerdien de Vries & Reint Jan Renes & Roland Schmehl, 2022. "The Social Acceptance of Airborne Wind Energy: A Literature Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-24, February.
    9. Jelle A. W. Poland & Roland Schmehl, 2023. "Modelling Aero-Structural Deformation of Flexible Membrane Kites," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-24, July.
    10. Tarek N. Dief & Uwe Fechner & Roland Schmehl & Shigeo Yoshida & Mostafa A. Rushdi, 2020. "Adaptive Flight Path Control of Airborne Wind Energy Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-29, February.
    11. van der Vlugt, Rolf & Bley, Anna & Noom, Michael & Schmehl, Roland, 2019. "Quasi-steady model of a pumping kite power system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 83-99.
    12. Pankaj Kumar & Yashwant Kashyap & Roystan Vijay Castelino & Anabalagan Karthikeyan & Manjunatha Sharma K. & Debabrata Karmakar & Panagiotis Kosmopoulos, 2023. "Laboratory-Scale Airborne Wind Energy Conversion Emulator Using OPAL-RT Real-Time Simulator," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-30, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:4:p:1750-:d:1063605. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.