scholarly journals LCA-Based Regional Distribution and Transference of Carbon Emissions from Wind Farms in China

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 198
Author(s):  
Xintian Bi ◽  
Jin Yang ◽  
Siyuan Yang

As a clean form of energy utilization, wind power is important for alleviating climate change. Although no direct carbon emissions occur in wind power generation, there exist upstream carbon emissions from manufacturing and installation, which have indirect effects on both the locations of wind farms and areas involved in upstream production and manufacturing. In this paper, based on Input–Output based Life Cycle Analysis (IO-LCA), we explored the lifetime carbon emissions of 378 wind farms in China that were still in operation in 2015. The regional distributions of carbon emissions from wind farms during the whole lifetime were depicted. The embodied carbon emission transfers from the location of the wind farm operation to upstream turbine manufacturing regions were traced. The net emission reduction benefits among regions were also calculated. Results show that carbon emissions mainly distribute in Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, and Tianjin in the turbine manufacturing stage, with a total amount of 3.36 MT. Inner Mongolia contributes the largest carbon emissions (5.94 MT) in the farm construction stage. Inner Mongolia has transferred about 0.99 MT carbon emissions to itself and has the largest net emission reduction. Recognizing the carbon emission transfer of wind farms and dividing the carbon emission reduction responsibilities among regions may shed light on supply chain carbon emission reduction and provincial carbon quota allocation.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 9822
Author(s):  
Tao Li ◽  
Ang Li ◽  
Yimiao Song

With the proposed target of carbon peak and carbon neutralization, the development and utilization of renewable energy with the goal of carbon emission reduction is becoming increasingly important in China. We used the analytic hierarchy process (ANP) and a variety of MCDM methods to quantitatively evaluate renewable energy indicators. This study measured the sequence and differences of the development and utilization of renewable energy in different regions from the point of view of carbon emission reduction, which provides a new analytical perspective for the utilization and distribution of renewable energy in China and a solution based on renewable energy for achieving the goal of carbon emission reduction as soon as possible. The reliability of the evaluation system was further enhanced by confirmation through a variety of methods. The results show that the environment and carbon dimensions are the primary criteria to evaluate the priority of renewable energy under carbon emission reduction. In the overall choice of renewable energy, photovoltaic energy is the best solution. After dividing regions according to carbon emission intensity and resource endowment, areas with serious carbon emissions are suitable for the development of hydropower; areas with sub-serious carbon emissions should give priority to the development of photovoltaic or wind power; high-carbon intensity area I should vigorously develop wind power; high-carbon intensity area II should focus on developing photovoltaic power; second high-carbon intensity areas I and II are suitable for the development of wind power and photovoltaic power; and second high-carbon intensity areas III and IV are the most suitable for hydropower.


2021 ◽  
Vol 257 ◽  
pp. 01009
Author(s):  
Xintong Zhang ◽  
Longshan Fu ◽  
Yu Huang

Environmental pollution is mainly caused by carbon emissions, so carbon emission reduction is our top priority now. Carbon-containing greenhouse gas emissions mainly come from the following aspects: (1) fossil fuel combustion; (2) leakage and volatilization in the process of fuel extraction, processing, transportation, and industrial utilization; (3) traditional biomass fuel combustion. The greenhouse effect will cause an increase in temperature, the rise of sea level, and the reduction of biodiversity. Due to little or no carbon emissions, new energy is a current research direction. It mainly includes wind energy, solar energy, hydropower, nuclear energy, and biological energy. Among them, wind power technology is quite mature, and the cost of wind power has become competitive in the market. Solar energy is an inexhaustible, nonpolluting, renewable, and clean energy source, which is gradually entering the stage of large-scale development. Hydropower is clean energy, renewable, pollution-free, and low operating costs. Nuclear energy is characterized by high efficiency and low carbon, coming from the fission energy released by the fission reaction of the fissionable material (nuclear fuel) in the nuclear reactor. Biomass resources can be divided into four categories: forest resources, crop straws, poultry manure, and household garbage, and its biggest feature is its renewability. Besides, carbon capture and carbon storage are other ways to reduce carbon emissions. Carbon capture uses chemical adsorption, physical adsorption, adsorption separation, and membrane separation to capture carbon dioxide. Carbon storage injects supercritical CO2 into a closed geological structure containing oil, gas, water, or non-commercial coal seams through pipeline technology to form long-term or permanent CO2 storage


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1810
Author(s):  
Kaitong Xu ◽  
Haibo Kang ◽  
Wei Wang ◽  
Ping Jiang ◽  
Na Li

At present, the issue of carbon emissions from buildings has become a hot topic, and carbon emission reduction is also becoming a political and economic contest for countries. As a result, the government and researchers have gradually begun to attach great importance to the industrialization of low-carbon and energy-saving buildings. The rise of prefabricated buildings has promoted a major transformation of the construction methods in the construction industry, which is conducive to reducing the consumption of resources and energy, and of great significance in promoting the low-carbon emission reduction of industrial buildings. This article mainly studies the calculation model for carbon emissions of the three-stage life cycle of component production, logistics transportation, and on-site installation in the whole construction process of composite beams for prefabricated buildings. The construction of CG-2 composite beams in Fujian province, China, was taken as the example. Based on the life cycle assessment method, carbon emissions from the actual construction process of composite beams were evaluated, and that generated by the composite beam components during the transportation stage by using diesel, gasoline, and electric energy consumption methods were compared in detail. The results show that (1) the carbon emissions generated by composite beams during the production stage were relatively high, accounting for 80.8% of the total carbon emissions, while during the transport stage and installation stage, they only accounted for 7.6% and 11.6%, respectively; and (2) during the transportation stage with three different energy-consuming trucks, the carbon emissions from diesel fuel trucks were higher, reaching 186.05 kg, followed by gasoline trucks, which generated about 115.68 kg; electric trucks produced the lowest, only 12.24 kg.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 6968
Author(s):  
Hong Li ◽  
Yazhong Ye ◽  
Lanxin Lin

The integrated power and natural gas energy system (IPGES) is of great significance to promote the coordination and complementarity of multi-energy flow, and it is an important carrier to increase the proportion of wind power accommodation and achieve the goal of carbon emission reduction. In this paper, firstly, the reward and punishment ladder-type carbon trading model is constructed, and the impact of the carbon trading mechanisms on the carbon emission sources in the power system is comparatively analyzed. Secondly, in order to achieve a reasonable allocation of carbon resources in IPGES, a bi-level optimization model is established while taking into account the economics of dispatching and the requirements of carbon emission reduction. Among them, the outer layer is the optimal carbon price solution model considering carbon trading; in the inner layer, considering the power system constraints, natural gas system constraints, and coupling element operation constraints, a stochastic optimal dispatching model of IPGES based on scenario analysis is established. Scenario generation and reduction methods are used to deal with the uncertainty of wind power, and the inner model is processed as a mixed integer linear programming problem. In the MATLAB environment, program the dichotomy and call the Gurobi optimization solver to complete the interactive solution of the inner and outer models. Finally, case studies that use an integrated IEEE 39-bus power system and Belgian 20-node gas system demonstrate the effectiveness and scalability of the proposed model and optimization method.


Author(s):  
Hongxia Sun ◽  
Jie Yang ◽  
Yang Zhong

With the increasingly serious problem of environmental pollution, reducing carbon emissions has become an urgent task for all countries. The cap-and-trade (C&T) policy has gained international recognition and has been adopted by several countries. In this paper, considering the uncertainty of market demand, we discuss the carbon emission reduction and price policies of two risk-averse competitive manufacturers under the C&T policy. The two manufacturers have two competitive behaviors: simultaneous decision making and sequential decision making. Two models were constructed for these behaviors. The optimal decisions, carbon emission reduction rate, and price were obtained from these two models. Furthermore, in this paper the effects of some key parameters on the optimal decision are discussed, and some managerial insights are obtained. The results show that the lower the manufacturers’ risk aversion level is, the higher their carbon emission reduction rate and utilities. As the carbon quota increases, the manufacturers’ optimal carbon reduction rate and utilities increase. Considering consumers’ environmental awareness, it is more beneficial for the government to reduce the carbon quota and motivate manufacturers’ internal enthusiasm for emission reduction. The government can, through macro control of the market, make carbon trading prices increase appropriately and encourage manufacturers to reduce carbon emissions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 118 ◽  
pp. 04014
Author(s):  
Tao Yi ◽  
Mohan Qiu ◽  
Zhengang Zhang ◽  
Song Mu ◽  
Yu Tian

Under the mandatory push of meeting carbon emission reduction commitments proposed in the Paris Agreement, the analysis on the peaking time of China’s carbon emissions deserves enough attention. This paper focuses on the peaking times of total carbon emissions (TCE) and carbon emission intensity (CEI) in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). According to the development of carbon emissions in YRD and related targets in the 13th Five-Year Plan, the peaking times of TCE and CEI in different scenarios are predicted based on the influence mechanism analysis of carbon emissions in YRD from the perspective of energy, economy and society. Considering the development characteristics of China at this stage, this paper introduces several new indicators such as full-time equivalent of research and development (R&D) personnel and investment in environmental pollution control. Based on the study results, several policy recommendations are put forward to fulfil China’s carbon emission reduction commitments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 6498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fuquan Zhao ◽  
Feiqi Liu ◽  
Han Hao ◽  
Zongwei Liu

The Chinese government has made a commitment to control carbon emissions, and the deployment of renewable energy power generation is considered as an effective solution. In recent years, great effort has been exerted to support the development of renewable energy in China. While, due to fiscal pressures and changes in management policies, related subsidies are diminishing now and energy users are asked to pay for the cost. Regulations about carbon cap and renewable energy consumptions are issued to transfer the responsibility of consuming renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions to energy consumers. A national carbon trading system is set up in China and is under its growth stage. Therefore, this study lists the factors that should be considered by the energy users, analyzes the levelized cost of electricity generated by renewable energy in four cities in China, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and compares the results with current carbon prices. Based on the research, under the current status, it is still more cost-efficient for enterprises to buy carbon credits than introduce renewable energies, and great differences among cities are shown due to different natural conditions. Besides, with diminishing subsidies and development of the carbon trading market, the carbon price will gradually reflect the actual value and carbon emission reduction costs will become an important part of enterprise expenditure. In the long term, enterprises should link more factors to carbon emissions, like social responsibility and brand image, instead of only the cost.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 4387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin ◽  
Zhang ◽  
Wang ◽  
Yang ◽  
Shi ◽  
...  

The increasing demand for urban distribution increases the number of transportation vehicles which intensifies the congestion of urban traffic and leads to a lot of carbon emissions. This paper focuses on carbon emission reduction in urban distribution, taking perishable foods as the object. It carries out optimization analysis of urban distribution routes to explore the impact of low carbon policy on urban distribution routes planning. On the basis of analysis of the cost components and corresponding constraints of urban distribution, two optimization models of urban distribution routes with and without carbon emissions cost are constructed. Fuel quantity related to cost and carbon emissions in the model is calculated based on traffic speed, vehicle fuel quantity and passable time period of distribution. Then an improved algorithm which combines genetic algorithm and tabu search algorithm is designed to solve models. Moreover, an analysis of the influence of carbon tax price is also carried out. It is concluded that in the process of urban distribution based on the actual network information, path optimization considering the low carbon factor can effectively reduce the distribution process of CO2, and reduce the total cost of the enterprise and society, thus achieving greater social benefits at a lower cost. In addition, the government can encourage low-carbon distribution by rationally adjusting the price of carbon tax to achieve a higher social benefit.


Author(s):  
Decai Tang ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Brandon J Bethel

The Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is an essential part of China’s goal of reducing its national carbon emissions. Focusing on economic and social development, the development of science and technology, carbon sinks, energy consumption, and carbon emissions, this paper uses “the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution mode” (TOPSIS) and “an obstacle factor diagnosis method” to measure the reduction capacity of each province and municipality of the YREB. Key obstacles to achieving the goal of carbon emission reduction are also identified. The main finding is that the emission reduction capacities of Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang in China’s east is far greater than that of all other provinces and municipalities, the main obstacle of Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang are carbon sinks, energy consumption and carbon emission, and other provinces and municipalities are social and economic development. Taking into consideration those evaluation results and obstacles, paths for carbon emission reduction are delineated through a four-quadrant matrix method with intent to provide suitable references for the development of a low-carbon economy in the YREB.


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