Environmental impacts of future low-carbon electricity systems: Detailed life cycle assessment of a Danish case study

Turconi, Roberto; Tonini, Davide; Nielsen, Christian F.B.; Simonsen, Christian G.

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.06.078

Cited by 62 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Results that are in some ways similar to present results have been found in the small body of literature analysing impacts of electricity systems without consideration of additional impacts due to the variable nature of wind and solar energy [5,6,19]. The benefits of renewable energy sources in reducing GHG emissions is a common finding across studies, and still holds in this study after inclusion of grid extension and energy storage requirements.…”

Section: Comparison With Existing Literaturesupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Numerous life cycle assessment (LCA) studies exist examining environmental impacts of particular parts of the electricity system, including electricity generation technologies (e.g., [9][10][11][12], or literature reviews [13,14]) and electricity transmission or distribution infrastructure [15][16][17][18]. Relatively few studies have attempted to analyse the electricity system as a whole [5,6,19], and to our knowledge no LCA studies of electricity systems have taken into account the impacts of energy storage and grid extensions in scenarios with high penetrations of variable renewable energy (VRE).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental impacts of high penetration renewable energy scenarios for Europe

Berrill

Arvesen

Scholz

et al. 2016

Environ. Res. Lett.

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The prospect of irreversible environmental alterations and an increasingly volatile climate pressurises societies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thereby mitigating climate change impacts. As global electricity demand continues to grow, particularly if considering a future with increased electrification of heat and transport sectors, the imperative to decarbonise our electricity supply becomes more urgent. This letter implements outputs of a detailed power system optimisation model into a prospective life cycle analysis framework in order to present a life cycle analysis of 44 electricity scenarios for Europe in 2050, including analyses of systems based largely on low-carbon fossil energy options (natural gas, and coal with carbon capture and storage (CCS)) as well as systems with high shares of variable renewable energy (VRE) (wind and solar). VRE curtailments and impacts caused by extra energy storage and transmission capabilities necessary in systems based on VRE are taken into account. The results show that systems based largely on VRE perform much better regarding climate change and other impact categories than the investigated systems based on fossil fuels. The climate change impacts from Europe for the year 2050 in a scenario using primarily natural gas are 1400 Tg CO 2 -eq while in a scenario using mostly coal with CCS the impacts are 480 Tg CO 2 -eq. Systems based on renewables with an even mix of wind and solar capacity generate impacts of 120-140 Tg CO 2 -eq. Impacts arising as a result of wind and solar variability do not significantly compromise the climate benefits of utilising these energy resources. VRE systems require more infrastructure leading to much larger mineral resource depletion impacts than fossil fuel systems, and greater land occupation impacts than systems based on natural gas. Emissions and resource requirements from wind power are smaller than from solar power.

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Section: Comparison With Existing Literaturesupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental impacts of high penetration renewable energy scenarios for Europe

Berrill

Arvesen

Scholz

et al. 2016

Environ. Res. Lett.

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show abstract

“…As opposite to the industrial residues, straw and wild grass (from natural areas) were identified as promising substrates for bioenergy, as their use for the energy appeared preferable to their current alternatives in all the environmental categories investigated. The results for straw are in agreement with the findings of recent LCA studies (Cherubini & Ulgiati, ; Boldrin et al ., ; Hamelin et al ., ; Turconi et al ., ). This also applies to grass (Roesch et al ., ; Recchia et al ., ; De Vries et al ., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental implications of the use of agro‐industrial residues for biorefineries: application of a deterministic model for indirect land‐use changes

2015

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Biorefining agro-industrial biomass residues for bioenergy production represents an opportunity for both sustainable energy supply and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mitigation. Yet, is bioenergy the most sustainable use for these residues? To assess the importance of the alternative use of these residues, a consequential life cycle assessment (LCA) of 32 energy-focused biorefinery scenarios was performed based on eight selected agro-industrial residues and four conversion pathways (two involving bioethanol and two biogas). To specifically address indirect land-use changes (iLUC) induced by the competing feed/food sector, a deterministic iLUC model, addressing global impacts, was developed. A dedicated biochemical model was developed to establish detailed mass, energy, and substance balances for each biomass conversion pathway, as input to the LCA. The results demonstrated that, even for residual biomass, environmental savings from fossil fuel displacement can be completely outbalanced by iLUC, depending on the feed value of the biomass residue. This was the case of industrial residues (e.g. whey and beet molasses) in most of the scenarios assessed. Overall, the GHGs from iLUC impacts were quantified to 4.1 t CO 2 -eq.ha À1 demanded yr À1 corresponding to 1.2-1.4 t CO 2 -eq. t À1 dry biomass diverted from feed to energy market. Only, bioenergy from straw and wild grass was shown to perform better than the alternative use, as no competition with the feed sector was involved. Biogas for heat and power production was the best performing pathway, in a short-term context. Focusing on transport fuels, bioethanol was generally preferable to biomethane considering conventional biogas upgrading technologies. Based on the results, agro-industrial residues cannot be considered burden-free simply because they are a residual biomass and careful accounting of alternative utilization is a prerequisite to assess the sustainability of a given use. In this endeavor, the iLUC factors and biochemical model proposed herein can be used as templates and directly applied to any bioenergy consequential study involving demand for arable land.

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“…Turconi et al [20] Denmark Wind, hydro, thermal power plants, biogas, coal, gas oil, natural gas, refinery gas, residual oil, straw, waste, wood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Performance of Electricity Generation Based on Resources: A Life Cycle Assessment Case Study in Turkey

et al. 2016

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Abstract:The aim of this paper was to determine how to change the environmental performance of electricity generation depending on the resources and their shares, in order to support decision-makers. Additionally, this paper presents an application of life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology to determine the environmental burdens of electricity generation in Turkey. Electricity generation data in Turkey for the years 2012 and 2023 were used as a case study. The functional unit for electricity generation was 1 kWh. The LCA calculations were carried out using CML-IA (v3.00) data and the results were interpreted with respect to Monte Carlo simulation analysis (with the Monte Carlo function built in SimaPro 8.0.1 software). The results demonstrated that the fossil fuel consumption not only contributes to global warming, but it also has effects on the elemental basis of abiotic depletion due to raw material consumption for plant infrastructure. Additionally, it was observed that the increasing proportion of wind power in the electricity mix would also increase certain life cycle impacts (such as the elemental basis of abiotic depletion, human ecotoxicity, and terrestrial ecotoxicity) in Turkey's geography compared to increasing the share of other renewable energy sources, such as hydropower, geothermal, as well as solar.

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Environmental impacts of future low-carbon electricity systems: Detailed life cycle assessment of a Danish case study

Cited by 62 publications

References 43 publications

Environmental impacts of high penetration renewable energy scenarios for Europe

Environmental impacts of high penetration renewable energy scenarios for Europe

Environmental implications of the use of agro‐industrial residues for biorefineries: application of a deterministic model for indirect land‐use changes

Environmental Performance of Electricity Generation Based on Resources: A Life Cycle Assessment Case Study in Turkey

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