Life cycle assessment of ocean energy technologies

The increase of greenhouse gases (GHG) generated by the burning of fossil fuels has been recognized as one of the main causes of climate change (CC). Different countries of the world have developed new policies on national energy security directed to the use of renewable energies mainly, ocean energy being one of them. The implementation of ocean energy is increasing worldwide. However, the use of these technologies is not exempt from the generation of potential environmental impacts throughout their life cycle. In this context, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a holistic approach used to evaluate the environmental impacts of a product or system throughout its entire life cycle. LCA studies need to be conducted to foster the development of ocean energy technologies (OET) in sustainable management. In this paper, a systematic review was conducted and 18 LCA studies of OET were analyzed. Most of the LCA studies are focused on wave and tidal energy. CC is the most relevant impact category evaluated, which is generated mostly by raw material extraction, manufacturing stage and shipping operations. Finally, the critical stages of the systems evaluated were identified, together with, the opportunity areas to promote an environmental management for ocean energy developers.

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Are Renewables as Friendly to Humans as to the Environment?: A Social Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Electricity

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11051370 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 1370 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Shutaro Takeda ◽

Alexander Keeley ◽

Shigeki Sakurai ◽

Shunsuke Managi ◽

Catherine Norris

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Supply Chain ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Social Life ◽

Electricity Production ◽

Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Solar Photovoltaic ◽

Energy Technologies ◽

Electricity Mix ◽

The Impact

The adoption of renewable energy technologies in developing nations is recognized to have positive environmental impacts; however, what are their effects on the electricity supply chain workers? This article provides a quantitative analysis on this question through a relatively new framework called social life cycle assessment, taking Malaysia as a case example. Impact assessments by the authors show that electricity from renewables has greater adverse impacts on supply chain workers than the conventional electricity mix: Electricity production with biomass requires 127% longer labor hours per unit-electricity under the risk of human rights violations, while the solar photovoltaic requires 95% longer labor hours per unit-electricity. However, our assessment also indicates that renewables have less impacts per dollar-spent. In fact, the impact of solar photovoltaic would be 60% less than the conventional mix when it attains grid parity. The answer of “are renewables as friendly to humans as to the environment?” is “not-yet, but eventually.”

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Adjustment of the Life Cycle Inventory in Life Cycle Assessment for the Flexible Integration into Energy Systems Analysis

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13174437 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (17) ◽

pp. 4437

Author(s):

Thomas Betten ◽

Shivenes Shammugam ◽

Roberta Graf

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Systems Analysis ◽

Energy Systems ◽

Use Case ◽

Double Counting ◽

Energy Technologies ◽

Theoretical Approaches ◽

Energy Systems Analysis ◽

The Difference

With an increasing share of renewable energy technologies in our energy systems, the integration of not only direct emission (from the use phase), but also the total life cycle emissions (including emissions during resource extraction, production, etc.) becomes more important in order to draw meaningful conclusions from Energy Systems Analysis (ESA). While the benefit of integrating Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) into ESA is acknowledged, methodologically sound integration lacks resonance in practice, partly because the dimension of the implications is not yet fully understood. This study proposes an easy-to-implement procedure for the integration of LCA results in ESA based on existing theoretical approaches. The need for a methodologically sound integration, including the avoidance of double counting of emissions, is demonstrated on the use case of Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell photovoltaic technology. The difference in Global Warming Potential of 19% between direct and LCA based emissions shows the significance for the integration of the total emissions into energy systems analysis and the potential double counting of 75% of the life cycle emissions for the use case supports the need for avoidance of double counting.

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