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Assessing the life cycle costs and carbon emissions of wind power
Wind energy is playing an essential role in meeting the Scottish Government’s ambitions to generate the equivalent of 100% of Scotland’s electricity consumption from renewable energy sources by 2020. This target aims to reduce carbon emissions and ensure secure, cost-effective energy supply.
To meet these objectives, wind energy must be able to provide an energy supply that is less carbon intensive over its lifetime than the technologies it displaces. It must also be able to supply energy to consumers at an affordable price.
This review aims to enable Scottish policy makers and other interested parties to better understand the range of academic estimates of the life cycle costs and emissions of wind energy, and the evidence on which these estimates are based.