Applying Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment to maximise the innovation potential of new technologies for critical components in wind turbines

Abstract Future wind turbines require flexible and economically affordable product development processes to obtain reliable and validated new concepts for larger wind turbines. Pitch bearings and gearboxes are considered critical components, due to their high contribution to the operational costs of wind farms and their high failure rates. Within the Horizon 2020 project INNTERESTING (Innovative Future-Proof Testing Methods for Reliable Critical Components in Wind Turbines) new concepts and technologies concerning two critical components are being developed for future wind turbines. Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) is applied iteratively to gain insights in the more demanding requirements for future wind turbines, specifically on the reduction of capital and operational expenditures and improvement of the environmental and socio-economic performance aspects of wind turbines in order to reduce the economic, environmental and social impact of the newly developed technologies. This paper focusses on the results of the first LCSA iteration for the business-as-usual reference scenarios which will serve as a benchmark and reference for the newly to be developed solutions in the project.

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Collaborating constructively for sustainable biotechnology

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-019-54331-7 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Nicholas E. Matthews ◽

Carrie A. Cizauskas ◽

Donovan S. Layton ◽

Laurence Stamford ◽

Philip Shapira

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Synthetic Biology ◽

Social Impact ◽

New Technologies ◽

Sustainability Assessment ◽

Early Stage ◽

Impact Categories ◽

Recent Advances ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Analytical Approaches

AbstractTackling the pressing sustainability needs of society will require the development and application of new technologies. Biotechnology, emboldened by recent advances in synthetic biology, offers to generate sustainable biologically-based routes to chemicals and materials as alternatives to fossil-derived incumbents. Yet, the sustainability potential of biotechnology is not without trade-offs. Here, we probe this capacity for sustainability for the case of bio-based nylon using both deliberative and analytical approaches within a framework of Constructive Sustainability Assessment. We highlight the potential for life cycle CO2 and N2O savings with bio-based processes, but report mixed results in other environmental and social impact categories. Importantly, we demonstrate how this knowledge can be generated collaboratively and constructively within companies at an early stage to anticipate consequences and to inform the modification of designs and applications. Application of the approach demonstrated here provides an avenue for technological actors to better understand and become responsive to the sustainability implications of their products, systems and actions.

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