Wind Power Generation - Essay Example

The concepts of carbon footprinting have been utilized in different life cycles that affect particular categories of potential global warming indicators (McTavish, Feszty, and Nitzsche, 2013).Since the carbon footprint is related to monetary transactions in terms of carbon offsets, taxes, or decrease or increase in consumer choices, therefore consistent carbon footprint analysis or calculations are necessary towards the facilitation of the comparisons (Seri and Klasen, 2015).In order to calculate the carbon footprint, all the quantities of greenhouse gases removed or emitted or embodied in the life cycle of any product have to be analyzed and estimated and integrated.

The carbon dioxide equivalent (the CO2e) is the availed standard unit utilized in measuring the carbon emissions; all impacts emanating from different greenhouse gases are expressed in relation to the CO2 level that would lead to the same amount or level of warming; utilizing the standard ratios (Mayers et al., 2014). The Carbon emission savings are mainly calculated from the emission factor, based on each type of fuel in use for the power generation; hence saving is achieved via the production of energy with the help of wind.

An annual emission saving is estimated via the multiplication of the total output of annual energy by an emission factor used in counterfactual cases; for example the coal-fired electricity generation. Eventually, the carbon payback time of a wind farm is obtained by relating or comparing the net carbon losses from a given wind electricity generation farm with carbon savings observed from the wind farm by changing the same electricity or power generated from the same capacity coal-fired turbine (Badrzadeh, 2010).

The LCA or Eco balance or the cradle-to-grave analysis technique are utilized in assessing the environmental impacts entailing all stages of wind power generation product's life, that is, from their cradle to grave; the LCA assists in reducing shallow analysis on the environmental concerns via the interpretation of results toward assistance in making an informed decision; compiling inventories of relevant material or energy inputs and their respective environmental releases; and evaluation of potential impacts in relation to identified releases and inputs (Seri and Klasen, 2015).