scholarly journals Comparative life cycle assessment of renewable energy systems for heating and cooling

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 591-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Chiavetta ◽  
Francesco Tinti ◽  
Alessandra Bonoli
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems ◽  
Heating And Cooling ◽  
Comparative Life Cycle Assessment

scholarly journals Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Grid-Integrated Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems in Northern Nigeria

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 5889 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismail Abubakar Jumare ◽  
Ramchandra Bhandari ◽  
Abdellatif Zerga
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Northern Nigeria ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems ◽  
Toxicity Potential ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Depletion Potential

Life cycle assessment is a crucial tool in evaluating systems performances for sustainability and decision-making. This paper provided environmental impact of integrating renewable energy systems to the utility-grid based on a baseline optimized energy production data from “HOMER” for renewable systems modelling of a site in northern Nigeria. The ultimate goal was to ascertain the best hybrid option(s) in sustaining the environment. Different assumptions and scenarios were modelled and simulated using Ganzleitlichen Bilanz (GaBi). Uncertainty analysis was ensured to the impact data based on pedigree-matrix and Excel-program, as well as overall policy relevance. The results of the impact categories revealed first scenario (i.e., conventional path-based) with the highest impacts on global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), human toxicity potential (HTP), and abiotic depletion potential (ADPfossils). The lowest impacts arise in the renewable-based scenarios for all the considered categories except the Ozone-layer depletion potential Category where the highest contribution falls in the third scenario (i.e., photovoltaic (PV)/biomass-biogas system) although all values being infinitesimal. In quantitative terms, the reduction in the GWP from the highest being the first scenario to the lowest being the fourth scenario (i.e., wind/biomass-biogas system) was 96.5%. Hence, with the outstanding contributions of the hybrid renewable systems, adopting them especially the lowest impact scenarios with expansions is relevant for environmental sustainability.

The role of ‘living laboratories’ in unlocking the potential of renewable energy and smart distributed energy systems to address the UN SDGs

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Fogwill ◽  
Zoe Robinson ◽  
David Healey ◽  
Sharon George ◽  
Phillip Catney ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Landscape ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Distributed Energy ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems ◽  
Energy Networks ◽  
Climate Action

<p>The UN Sustainable Development Goals provide a framework towards a more sustainable future.  Although each goal can be targeted separately, the greatest benefit is to be had in ensuring that projects exploit synergies between different goals, are developed with an interdisciplinary perspective, and integrate different stakeholders across academia, business, government, NGOs, and communities.</p><p>In combination, Renewable Energy Systems (RES) and distributed ‘smart’ energy networks (SEN) provide opportunities to drive down CO<sub>2</sub> emissions, clearly addressing SDG13, ‘climate action’.  However, significant potential exists to positively contribute to a wider suite of goals as well as the potential to negatively impact other aspects. Addressing these tensions and opportunities requires development of a detailed understanding of the full societal, economic and environmental impacts of such developments.</p><p>Such integrated renewable energy systems and smart energy networks are in the early stages of development.  Taking a ‘living laboratory approach’ enables the development and live-testing of new energy systems, including the opportunity to consider full life cycle assessment impacts and benefits, as well as investigate and co-develop interactions with end-users.  Here we outline the potential of one of Europe’s largest ‘at scale’ multi-vector smart energy systems, developed as a ‘living laboratory’ at Keele University in the UK, to demonstrate an integrated approach to addressing the UN’s SDGs through integrated RES-SEN systems. The scale and scope of the project provides the opportunity for the detailed analysis required to provide a model of a scalable, integrated RES-SEN approach as part of an evolving energy landscape, where multi-vector renewables, and distributed energy and storage provide new models for decarbonisation, whilst also contributing more widely to the UN’s SDGs.</p><p>This project represents an ambitious and innovative demonstrator programme that brings together multiple stakeholders to explore the potential for addressing the core SDGs of ‘climate action’, ‘affordable and clean energy’, ‘sustainable cities and communities’, ‘decent work and economic growth’, and ‘industry, innovation and infrastructure’, while exploring the additional potential impacts and benefits to ‘quality education’, ‘life on land’ and ‘partnerships for the goal’. The programme of work focusses on technical developments, societal adoption and full economic life-cycle assessment, which combined are developing a blue print for the integration of RES-SEN technologies across the evolving energy landscape by working in partnership with key industrial and commercial partners to contribute to a wide array of the UN’s SDGs.  </p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Life Cycle Analysis of a Geothermal Power Plant: Comparison of the Environmental Performance with Other Renewable Energy Systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Basosi ◽  
Roberto Bonciani ◽  
Dario Frosali ◽  
Giampaolo Manfrida ◽  
Maria Laura Parisi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Power Plant ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Life Cycle Analysis ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems ◽  
Geothermal Power Plant ◽  
A Value ◽  
Geothermal Power

A life cycle analysis was performed for the assessment of the environmental performances of three existing Italian power plants of comparable nominal power operating with different sources of renewable energy: Geothermal, solar, and wind. Primary data were used for building the life cycle inventories. The results are characterized by employing a wide portfolio of environmental indicators employing the ReCiPe 2016 and the ILCD 2011 Midpoint+ methods; normalization and weighting are also applied using the ReCiPe 2016 method at the endpoint level. The midpoint results demonstrate a good eco-profile of the geothermal power plant compared to other renewable energy systems and a definite step forward over the performance of the national energy mix. The Eco-Point single score calculation showed that wind energy is the best technology with a value of 0.0012 Eco-points/kWh, a result in line with previously documented life cycle analysis studies. Nevertheless, the geothermal power plant achieved a value of 0.0177 Eco-points/kWh which is close to that calculated for the photovoltaic plant (0.0087 Eco-points/kWh) and much lower than the national energy mix one (0.1240 Eco-points/kWh). Also, a scenario analysis allowed for a critical discussion about potential improvements to the environmental performance of the geothermal power plant.

scholarly journals Optimizing the selection of sustainability measures to minimize life-cycle cost of existing buildings

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moatassem Abdallah ◽  
Khaled El-Rayes ◽  
Liang Liu
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Optimization Model ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Existing Buildings ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems ◽  
Building Life Cycle ◽  
Selection Of

Buildings have significant impacts on the environment and economy as they were reported by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in 2009 to account for 40% of the global energy consumption. Building owners are increasingly seeking to integrate sustainability and green measures in their buildings to minimize energy and water consumption as well as life-cycle cost. Due to the large number of feasiblecombinations of sustainability measures, decision makers are often faced with a challenging task that requires them to identify an optimal set of upgrade measures to minimize the building life-cycle cost. This paper presents a model for optimizing the selection of building upgrade measures to minimize the life-cycle cost of existing buildings while complying with owner-specified requirements for building operational performance and budget constraints. The optimization model accounts for initial upgrade cost, operational cost and saving, escalation in utility costs, maintenance cost, replacement cost, and salvage value of building fixtures and equipment, and renewable energy systems. A case study of a rest area building in the state of Illinois in the United States was analyzed to illustrate the unique capabilities of the developed optimization model. The main findings of this analysis illustrate the capabilities of the model in identifying optimal building upgrade measures to achieve the highest savings of building life-cycle cost within a user-specified upgrade budget; and generating practical and detailed recommendations on replacing building fixtures and equipment and installing renewable energy systems.

Water, land and climate nexus of electricity from biomass

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nariê Souza ◽  
Thayse Hernandes ◽  
Karina M. B. Bruno ◽  
Daniele S. Henzler ◽  
Otávio Cavalett
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Electricity Production ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Change Mitigation

<p>Driven by the expected population growth, the world faces now the challenge of meeting energy demands of about 9 billion people on the next decades and avoid dangerous climate change effects. In this context, Renewable Energy Systems (RES) are a key strategy to decarbonize the power sector and contribute to the climate change mitigation targets. In the Special Report on Climate Change and Land, IPCC calls attention to possible trade-offs, adverse side-effects and implications to sustainable development that the large-scale deployment of bioenergy may cause. A comprehensive understanding of the sustainability profile along the entire life-cycle of electricity production is fundamental if we want to realize the transition to cleaner technologies in the energy sector. In this study we analyze the water, land and climate impacts of electricity production systems in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We focus our analysis in the electricity production from sugarcane straw in Brazil, since there is a great opportunity for better using this lignocellulosic material for bioenergy applications. We relate appropriate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) indicators to multiple SDGs, considering attainable and potential sugarcane yields, derived from agroclimatic modeling. When discussing the sustainability of bioenergy production, a broader sustainability analysis, as provided by the SDGs, can help to identify water, land and climate nexus and suggest possible technological solutions for minimizing possible trade-offs among the different impacts. Our analysis demonstrates the nexus implications of electricity production from sugarcane biomass to the context of the SDGs, as well as the spatially explicit environmental implications of electricity production form sugarcane biomass.</p><p>Keywords: renewable energy systems, life cycle assessment, climate change mitigation, sustainable development</p>

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Environmental and Energy Systems

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 5892
Author(s):  
Luca Ciacci ◽  
Fabrizio Passarini
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Energy Generation ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Green Technologies ◽  
And Storage

The transition towards renewable energy sources and “green” technologies for energy generation and storage is expected to mitigate the climate emergency in the coming years [...]

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document