Carbon and energy life cycle analysis of wind energy industry in Libya

Abstract

By analyzing a wide range of energy, economic, and environmental variables for a variety of attractive locations in Libya, the study established the fundamentals of localizing the wind energy business in Libya. The estimate of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission factor resulting from the conversion of wind energy into electric energy also includes the quantity of GHG emissions from cement manufacturing and transportation, as well as manufacturing (for various wind turbine manufacturers) sea transportation of wind energy equipment from the site of manufacture to the port of Tripoli, land transportation to the location of the wind energy farm, and calculating the energy and emissions used for recycling recyclable materials and for transportation. Hourly climate data over a 25-year period (1995-2020) were gathered from the SolarGis climate information portal. For many viable wind energy production locations in Libya, the System Advisor Model (SAM) software was used to calculate the productivity of wind farms with a 100 MW capacity. The study’s findings showed that the Gamesa turbine, whose capital cost was around (146,916,400 dollars), had the best economic and environmental indices. The GHG emission rates for all the cities that were targeted ranged from 24-63g GHG/kWh. The time needed for carbon to recover ranged from 5.5 to 14.5 months. The expected energy payback time was 14 to 22 months. An LCOE’s production costs ranged from 4.8 to 11.1 cents per kWh.