Determination of Energy Costs of Wind Farms at All Life Cycle Stages

The article presents the results of calculations of energy costs at the life cycle stages of energy facilities (construction, operation and decommissioning) and the total energy costs during their life cycle. Total energy costs are widely used, along with financial costs, to assess the energy efficiency of power facilities for distributed energy resources management, including wind farms. The authors of the article have calculated the total energy costs at the life cycle stages of onshore wind power plants including the energy costs that can be compensated by the recycling and reusing of applied materials. According to the results, the energy costs of the production of wind turbines as well as foundations and cables have the greatest impact on the total energy costs during life cycle of onshore wind power plants, and therefore on their energy efficiency; the lowest energy costs are of the construction works, transportation of wind farm elements and service maintenance. It is also showed how the energy costs are changed with the increase in the installed capacity of wind turbines and the change in the technical characteristics of wind farm elements, in particular, the mass of foundations and cables.