WindTrace: Assessing the environmental impacts of wind energy designs with a parametric life cycle inventory model

Abstract Wind energy is expanding rapidly in Europe and plays a crucial role in the energy transition, yet existing life cycle inventory databases are outdated and lack the flexibility to accommodate continuously growing sizes of wind turbines. Here, we introduce WindTrace, an open‐source parametric model built on Brightway that generates customized life cycle inventories for onshore wind turbines and parks. Fed by up‐to‐date data from literature and industry reports, the model uses 20 user‐defined parameters, covering both turbine characteristics (e.g., hub height and power capacity) and wind park attributes (e.g., number of turbines and coordinates). Such parameters serve to unveil the influence of onshore wind turbines' design on their respective environmental impacts. In this work, we first demonstrate WindTrace's advantages by comparing the differences in life cycle inventories and environmental impacts of 800 kW, 2 MW, and 4.5 MW wind turbines with their Ecoinvent counterparts. This is particularly true for 4.5 MW turbines, where differences in tower design, land use, and end‐of‐life assumptions cause 16× higher freshwater ecotoxicity, 2.2× higher climate change, and 1.6× lower land use impacts in Ecoinvent. By testing model parameters, we highlight that scaling up from 1990s turbines (700 kW; 60 m) to current average sizes (4.5 MW; 100 m) has reduced the turbines’ climate change intensity by 38%. Furthermore, transitioning to future cleaner steel production could cut climate change impacts by 28%. Finally, increasing the European capacity factor from 24% to 35%, as suggested by WindEurope, reduces climate change impacts per kWh by 31.4%.