Carbon reduction potential of wind and marine energy systems and their interactions

关于生命周期碳排放的信息可以为决定是否投资于不同类型的可再生能源技术或为其提供政策支持提供信息。对海洋和远海风电（如漂浮式风电）生命周期碳的现有评估表明，排放量明显高于更成熟的技术，如陆上风电，这导致一些人质疑对这些新技术的投资是否合理[1,2,3]。然而，对隐含碳的生命周期评估并没有考虑到这些技术在不同时间对其竞争对手可用所带来的好处。在考虑电力系统的整体观点时，拥有多样化供应组合的好处是显而易见的，因此，有必要在评估生命周期影响时反映这些好处。挑战来自于现有的可再生能源系统生命周期碳估算，其重点是发电机本身的建造、维护和退役所产生的排放。这些影响通常是每单位能源生产的标准化影响，然后与其他技术的影响进行比较，例如化石燃料发电或电网的平均排放量，以证明可能的碳减排潜力。这种比较可能是以计算碳回报时间的形式进行的。这一步对新技术将取代的现有一代的类型做出假设；然而，对风电碳减排的研究表明，这种假设是一个重要的近似值[4,5]。在现实中，流离失所的一代在不同的日子、季节和年份都在变化。目的和目标本项目的主要目的是研究可再生能源多样性的环境效益，并了解这些是否证明加大对海洋和远海风能的投资是合理的。这将包括：*提供广泛的风能和海洋系统的生命周期碳（和其他环境影响）的概述*开发一种方法来解释不同相互作用技术的碳减排潜力*确定英国电网上远海风能和海洋运行的碳减排潜力。*调查可再生资源的时间波动之间的相互作用，以及这些波动如何与储存等技术相结合，以最大限度地减少碳排放来满足需求。*为考虑风能和海洋能源系统对碳排放的整体影响提供工具和指南。

Information on life-cycle carbon emissions can inform decisions on whether to invest in or provide policy support for different types of renewable technologies. Existing assessments of the life-cycle carbon of marine and far-offshore wind (such as floating wind) suggest that emissions are significantly higher than for more mature technologies, such as onshore wind, causing some to question whether investment in these new technologies is justified [1, 2, 3 ]. Life cycle assessments of embodied carbon, however, don't take into account the benefits that such technologies can provide in being available at different times to their competitors. The benefits of having a diverse supply mix are clear when considering a holistic view of the electricity system, and there is, therefore, a need to reflect such benefits in assessing the life cycle impacts.The challenge arises from existing life-cycle carbon estimates for renewable energy systems being focussed on emissions arising from the construction, maintenance and decommissioning of the generators themselves. The impacts are typically normalised per unit of energy produced and then compared with the impacts of other technologies, such as fossil generation or the average emissions of the grid, to demonstrate the likely carbon reduction potential. This comparison may be in the form of calculating the carbon payback time. This step makes an assumption about the types of existing generation that the new technology will displace; however, studies of the carbon emissions reduction of wind power have shown that such an assumption is a significant approximation [4, 5]. In reality, the displaced generation mix changes across days, seasons and years. Aims and ObjectivesThe key aim of this project is to examine the environmental benefits of diversity in renewable energy resource and understand whether these justify greater investment in marine and far-offshore wind. This will include:*Provide an overview of the life cycle carbon (and other environmental impacts) of a broad range of wind & marine systems*Develop a methodology to account for the carbon reduction potential of different interacting technologies *Identify the carbon reduction potential of far-offshore wind and marine operating on the British grid. *Investigate the interactions between temporal fluctuations in renewable resource and how these combine with technologies such as storage to meet demand with maximum possible carbon reduction.*Provide tools and guidelines for considering the holistic consequential impact on carbon emissions of wind & marine energy systems.