LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF GRID-CONNECTED WIND POWER SYSTEMS BASED ON THE CONFIGURATION OPTIMIZATION

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is adopted in this study to evaluate whether the energy generated by the wind power system can compensate the energy input in its life cycle and the energy payback time (EPBT) is used as the energy substantiality indicator. As the design and operation of the wind power system is strongly depended on the weather conditions and the load demand, this study reports an LCA of a grid-connected wind power system in three representative regions in China namely Lasa, Qingdao and Chongqing. First the system is optimized using the genetic algorithm (GA) and predicts the energy output during the life cycle of the wind power system considering the hourly weather data and hourly electric load. Finally the EPBT of the wind power system is obtained in three regions. Results show that the EPBT is 1.3, 2.25 and 5.3 years in Lasa, Qingdao Chongqing respectively.