World energy demand has increased significantly over recent decades, making clean and efficient energy production one of the most crucial challenges. As for wind energy exploitation, the emergence of airborne wind energy is a promising option compared to conventional wind technologies. In particular, the realization of offshore AWE farms also eliminates the problem of land availability of on-ground sites.
The goal of this project is to develop a life cycle assessment to evaluate the environmental impact and costs of a hypothetical OAWE farm. Moreover, the analysis would allow one to identify inefficiencies within the actual AWE systems and understand how to improve performance and sustainability, quantifying the impacts by means of standard and customized indicators and adapting AWE to the harsh marine environment. The project is highly multidisciplinary, since the involved aspects range from economic and environmental to technical, as well as social.
The main benefits of this work can be resumed in:
- creating a benchmark in the literature regarding OAWE systems assessment;
- helping developers understanding the main critical points requiring future developments;
- providing policy makers information about AWE potential to accelerate the energy transition.