The operation and maintenance (O and M) phase of offshore wind farms is often simplified in life cycle assessments (LCA), especially with respect to scour-related activities. This study develops a refined O and M–LCA model that explicitly includes scour monitoring, repair, and protection measures, and applies it to a 202 MW offshore wind farm in China. The analysis focuses on the environmental burdens of scour-related O and M activities under predefined engineering scenarios, rather than on the prediction of structural fatigue life or reliability-based intervention timing. Two representative scour-protection strategies were compared: rock dumping (S1) and cement-stabilized soil (S2). The results show that scour protection can substantially increase the environmental burdens of the O and M phase. Relative to the baseline O and M carbon intensity of 4.36 kg CO2-eq/MWh, S1 causes only a slight increase in global warming potential but greatly increases air pollution- and resource-related impacts because of large-scale rock extraction and transport. In contrast, S2 reduces mineral resource scarcity from 2.14 to 0.042 kg Cu-eq/MWh, corresponding to a 98% reduction compared with S1, but raises the global warming potential to 9.94 kg CO2-eq/MWh, mainly because of cement production and offshore treatment. Sensitivity analysis shows that S1 is more affected by hydrodynamic-driven intervention frequency in air pollution-related categories, whereas S2 is more sensitive to seabed conditions and stabilization efficiency in terms of GWP. A site-specific screening framework is proposed by integrating geotechnical and hydrodynamic constraints, regional environmental concerns, and targeted mitigation options. The results provide O and M-stage environmental evidence for the site-specific screening of scour-protection strategies and for improving the environmental performance of offshore wind O and M.
Xing et al. (Fri,) studied this question.