Climate change external cost appraisal of electricity generation systems from a life cycle perspective: the case of Greece

2012 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 124-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrios A. Georgakellos
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
External Cost ◽  
Life Cycle Perspective ◽  
Of Greece

scholarly journals Incorporating life cycle external cost in optimization of the electricity generation mix

Energy Policy ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 134-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athanasios Rentizelas ◽  
Dimitrios Georgakellos
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
External Cost

scholarly journals Integrated life-cycle assessment of electricity-supply scenarios confirms global environmental benefit of low-carbon technologies

2014 ◽  
Vol 112 (20) ◽  
pp. 6277-6282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar G. Hertwich ◽  
Thomas Gibon ◽  
Evert A. Bouman ◽  
Anders Arvesen ◽  
Sangwon Suh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Electricity Supply ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Low Carbon Technologies ◽  
Change Mitigation

Decarbonization of electricity generation can support climate-change mitigation and presents an opportunity to address pollution resulting from fossil-fuel combustion. Generally, renewable technologies require higher initial investments in infrastructure than fossil-based power systems. To assess the tradeoffs of increased up-front emissions and reduced operational emissions, we present, to our knowledge, the first global, integrated life-cycle assessment (LCA) of long-term, wide-scale implementation of electricity generation from renewable sources (i.e., photovoltaic and solar thermal, wind, and hydropower) and of carbon dioxide capture and storage for fossil power generation. We compare emissions causing particulate matter exposure, freshwater ecotoxicity, freshwater eutrophication, and climate change for the climate-change-mitigation (BLUE Map) and business-as-usual (Baseline) scenarios of the International Energy Agency up to 2050. We use a vintage stock model to conduct an LCA of newly installed capacity year-by-year for each region, thus accounting for changes in the energy mix used to manufacture future power plants. Under the Baseline scenario, emissions of air and water pollutants more than double whereas the low-carbon technologies introduced in the BLUE Map scenario allow a doubling of electricity supply while stabilizing or even reducing pollution. Material requirements per unit generation for low-carbon technologies can be higher than for conventional fossil generation: 11–40 times more copper for photovoltaic systems and 6–14 times more iron for wind power plants. However, only two years of current global copper and one year of iron production will suffice to build a low-carbon energy system capable of supplying the world's electricity needs in 2050.

scholarly journals Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Refrigerator Modelled with Application of Various Electricity Mixes and Technologies

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (17) ◽  
pp. 5350
Author(s):  
Anna Lewandowska ◽  
Przemysław Kurczewski ◽  
Katarzyna Joachimiak-Lechman ◽  
Marek Zabłocki
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Tracking Systems ◽  
Life Cycle Perspective ◽  
Environmental Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Electricity Systems

Improving national electricity mixes and increasing a share of renewable energy covered by credible and reliable tracking systems are vital topics, also in a context of life cycle assessment. There are many publications devoted to the relevance of energy in the life cycle of products, but only few LCA examples applying residual mixes have been found in the literature. The paper presents the results of an LCA study for a refrigerator calculated with using different electricity mixes and technologies. The life cycle was divided into eight stages and the electricity consumption was modelled as renewable energy, national residual mix, or national supplier mix. Electricity mixes for three different countries were selected and used. The study aimed to answer the following questions: “what are the most relevant elements in the life cycle of the analysed refrigerator?”, “do the elements change if various electricity mixes are applied?”, and “what differences are there in the environmental impact of electricity generation modelled as residual and supplier mixes?”. From the life cycle perspective, not only may differences in national electricity systems between countries turn out to be important, but equally significant may be the choice between different types of mixes for a certain country.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Solid Recovered Fuel Gasification in the State of Qatar

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Ahmad Mohamed S. H. Al-Moftah ◽  
Richard Marsh ◽  
Julian Steer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Fossil Resource ◽  
Environmental Impact Categories

Gas products from gasified solid recovered fuel (SRF) have been proposed as a replacement for natural gas to produce electricity in future power generation systems. In this work, the life cycle assessment (LCA) of SRF air gasification to energy was conducted using the Recipe2016 model considering five environmental impact categories and four scenarios in Qatar. The current situation of municipal solid waste (MSW) handling in Qatar is landfill with composting. The results show that using SRF gasification can reduce the environmental impact of MSW landfills and reliance on natural gas in electricity generation. Using SRF gasification on the selected five environmental impact categories—climate change, terrestrial acidification, marine ecotoxicity, water depletion and fossil resource depletion—returned significant reductions in environmental degradation. The LCA of the SRF gasification for the main four categories in the four scenarios gave varying results. The introduction of the SRF gasification reduced climate change-causing emissions by 41.3% because of production of renewable electricity. A reduction in water depletion and fossil resource depletion of 100 times were achieved. However, the use of solar technology and SRF gasification to generate electricity reduced the impact of climate change to almost zero emissions. Terrestrial acidification showed little to no change in all three scenarios investigated. This study was compared with the previous work from the literature and showed that on a nominal 10 kg MSW processing basis, 5 kg CO2 equivalent emissions were produced for the landfilling scenarios. While the previous studies reported that 8 kg CO2 produced per 10 kg MSW is processed for the same scenario. The findings indicate that introducing SRF gasification in solid waste management and electricity generation in Qatar has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission load and related social, economic, political and environmental costs. In addition, the adoption of the SRF gasification in the country will contribute to Qatar’s national vision 2030 by reducing landfills and produce sustainable energy.

Is biomass energy really clean? An environmental life-cycle perspective on biomass-based electricity generation in China

2016 ◽  
Vol 133 ◽  
pp. 767-776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changqing Xu ◽  
Jinglan Hong ◽  
Jianmei Chen ◽  
Xiaofei Han ◽  
Chen Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Biomass Energy ◽  
Life Cycle Perspective
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