Abstract
Renewable energy production has gained a progressively dominant role in Europe, gradually displacing traditional fossil fuel-based generation. In Italy, 8.8% of electricity production was covered by wind sources in 2023. Wind penetration is projected to increase significantly to reach the European Union’s climate target, reaching 51 GW of installed capacity in 2050. In this work, the authors used the attributional life cycle assessment method to extensively assess the environmental profile of onshore turbines in Italy. The analysis is grounded in an openly accessible dataset encompassing approximately 75% of the installed capacity for 2023. The life cycle assessment model was implemented using the ecoinvent library 3.9.1 and the Environmental Footprint 3.1 characterization method. Results indicate a range of climate profiles 13-45 vs. a national grid profile 382 (g CO2-eq/kWhel), and a range of equivalent hours of mapped wind farms from 630 to 4130 h. In addition, the results show that large turbines (>3 MW) have higher normalized embodied emissions per kWh of electricity produced than smaller turbines. Finally, the Monte Carlo and global sensitivity analyses conducted indicate that the steel used for the moving parts is the largest source of uncertainty, highlighting the importance of defining geographical life cycle inventory boundaries.