Infopack #3 - Counting the carbon: assessing and optimizing environmental performance in offshore wind farm design and operation

Offshore wind energy has a low carbon footprint and can displace substantial amounts of grid emissions, but both depend on how wind farms are designed, maintained, and operated. To assess these impacts, the SUDoco consortium developed three methods: a toolchain for evaluating life-cycle emissions and costs across wind farm designs, an operation and maintenance (o&M) model tracking emissions and costs, and a neural network estimating grid emission displacement over time.The results show that steel components and vessel logistics are major contributors to the carbon footprint of offshore wind. o&M emissions can vary substantially with component failure rates. economic optimization of layout, control, and their co-design often also leads to carbon-optimal solutions. Wake steering can significantly increase displaced grid emissions alongside energy yield