Environmental impact for offshore wind farms: Geolocalized Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach

International audienceThis paper presents an approach for Environmental Impact Assessment through the use of geolocalized LCA approach, for fixed and floating offshore wind farms. This work was undertaken within the EU-sponsored EnerGEO project, aiming at providing a versatile modeling platform for stakeholders allowing calculation, forecasting and monitoring of environmental impacts of different sources of energy. This paper described the geolocalized LCA approach, and its use for the evaluation of environmental impacts of wind energy. The effects of offshore wind farms on global environnemental impacts are evaluated though the LCA approach. It takes into account the type of wind farm, the construction phase, all technical aspects, the operation and maintenance scheme and the decommissioning. It also includes geolocalized information such as wind resources, bathymetry, accessibility ... Environmental impact parameters are accessible through a web service helping the decision makers in assessing the environnemental impacts