E&E News Wind turbines generate prompt energy payback -- study By Daniel Cusick The energy required to build a new commercial-scale wind turbine amounts to only a small amount of what the turbine will produce over a projected 20-year life span, according to a new life-cycle analysis of wind turbines performed by Oregon State University researchers. The environmental analysis, published in the International Journal of Sustainable Manufacturing, concludes that a 2-megawatt turbine built for a typical Pacific Northwest wind farm will pay back the energy used in its manufacture and installation within five to eight months of coming into service. All forms of energy generation require the conversion of natural resource inputs, which are attendant with environmental impacts and costs that must be quantified to make appropriate energy system development decisions, authors Karl Haapala and Preedanood Prempreeda explain in the paper (...) But Michael Goggin, director of research for the American Wind Energy Association, said in a statement that the results validate a large number of peer-reviewed studies, all of which show that wind energy quickly becomes a net energy and emissions saver, typically within a few months of operations.
Posted on: Fri, 20 Jun 2014 15:00:01 +0000
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