Comparison analysis of blade life cycles of land-based and offshore wind power plants

In recent years, the offshore wind power industry has been growing dynamically. A key element which decides upon power output of a wind power plant is blades. They are most frequently produced from polymers – laminates with epoxy resins and fiberglass. In the near future, when the blade life cycles are over, large amounts of waste material of this type will have to be reused. This paper presents a comparison analysis of the impact of particular material existence cycle stages of land-based and offshore wind power plant blades on the environment. Two wind power plant blades, of about 49 m in length each, were examined using the LCA method, the programme SimaPro, and Ekowskaźnik 99 modelling (phase LCIA).