Abstract Worldwide wind power capacity is increasing, while the environmental footprint and economic cost of energy produced decrease. However, wind power generation is weather-dependent. At a high penetration rate, storage systems such as power-to-gas may become necessary to adjust electricity production to consumption. This research work presents the environmental life cycle performance of wind power accounting for the energy storage induced by the temporal variability of weather-dependent production and consumption. A case study in which wind power installations are combined with a power-to-gas system in Denmark to provide electricity according to the national load consumption profile was considered. Results highlight an increase, roughly by a factor 2, of the carbon footprint coming from both energy storage infrastructure and induced losses, but remain significantly, at least ten times, lower than fossil counterparts.