Life Cycle Assessment of Italian Electricity Scenarios to 2030

Gargiulo, Alessia; Carvalho, Maria Leonor; Girardi, Pierpaolo

doi:10.3390/en13153852

Cited by 32 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…For example, climate change impact could decrease by about 46% due to the transition from traditional fuels to renewable sources [35]. Usually, the energy carries in the grid mix is beyond the authority of water and wastewater utilities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reclaimed Water for Vineyard Irrigation in a Mediterranean Context: Life Cycle Environmental Impacts, Life Cycle Costs, and Eco-Efficiency

Canaj¹,

Morrone²,

Roma

et al. 2021

Water

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The agricultural sector in the Mediterranean region, is increasingly using reclaimed water as an additional source for irrigation. However, there is a limited number of case studies about product-based life cycle analysis to ensure that the overall benefits of reclaimed water do indeed outweigh the impacts. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) methods are used in this study to investigate the environmental impacts and costs of vineyard cropping systems when tertiary reclaimed water is used as a supplementary source of irrigation water (integrated system). The conventional production system utilizing 100% groundwater was used as a reference system. As a proxy for sustainability, eco-efficiency, which combines economic and environmental performance, was assessed. The LCA revealed that the integrated system could reduce the net environmental impact by 23.8% due to lower consumption of irrigation water (−50%), electricity (−27.7%), and chemical fertilizers (−22.6%). Nevertheless, trade-offs between economics and the environment occurred as an integrated system is associated with higher life cycle costs and lower economic returns due to lower crop yield (−9.1%). The combined eco-efficiency assessment (ratio of economic value added to total environmental impact) revealed that the integrated system outperformed in terms of eco-efficiency by 12.6% due to lower environmental impacts. These results confirmed that reclaimed water could help to ensure an economically profitable yield with net environmental benefits. Our results provided an up-to-date and consistent life cycle analysis contributing to the creation of a valuable knowledge base for the associated costs and benefits of vineyard cultivation with treated wastewater.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reclaimed Water for Vineyard Irrigation in a Mediterranean Context: Life Cycle Environmental Impacts, Life Cycle Costs, and Eco-Efficiency

Canaj¹,

Morrone²,

Roma

et al. 2021

Water

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“…For all batteries, the use phase is highly dependent on the used electricity production mix. This effect was found to be greater under Scenario A, where an Italian medium-voltage mix was used [32]. Local conditions could therefore significantly affect results.…”

Section: Including Use Phasementioning

confidence: 92%

“…The battery lasted for 5000 cycles. The considered energy mix was the Italian one, updated to 2018, as defined in [32]. In Scenario B, batteries were used according to the Italian INECP to limit the overproduction from non-programmable renewable sources below 1 TWh in 2030 [33].…”

Section: Including Use Phasementioning

confidence: 99%

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Life Cycle Assessment of Stationary Storage Systems within the Italian Electric Network

2021

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The introduction of stationary storage systems into the Italian electric network is necessary to accommodate the increasing share of energy from non-programmable renewable sources and to reach progressive decarbonization targets. In this framework, a life cycle assessment is a suitable tool to assess environmental impacts during the entire life cycle of stationary storage systems, i.e., their sustainability. A Li-ion battery (lithium–iron–phosphate (LFP), nickel–manganese–cobalt (NMC) 532, and NMC 622) entire life cycle assessment (LCA) based on primary and literature data was performed. The LCA results showed that energy consumption (predominantly during cell production), battery design (particularly binder choice), inventory accuracy, and data quality are key aspects that can strongly affect results. Regarding the battery construction phase, LFP batteries showed better performance than the NMC ones, but when the end-of-life (EoL) stage was included, NMC cell performance became very close to those of LFPs. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses, done using the Monte Carlo methodology, confirmed that the results (except for the freshwater eutrophication indicator) were characterized by a low dispersion and that the energy mix choice, during the different battery life phases, was able to greatly influence the overall impact. The use of primary and updated data related to battery cell production, like those used in the present paper, was necessary to obtain reliable results, and the application to a European production line is an item of novelty of this paper.

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“…To perform this exercise, it is assumed that the batteries can perform up to 5000 circles during their lifetime (data provided by the producer). The energy mix considered is the Italian one, updated to 2017, as defined by Gargiulo et al [47].…”

Section: C-lcc Indicator Calculated For the Entire Life Cyclementioning

confidence: 99%

The Commodity Life Cycle Costing Indicator. An Economic Measure of Natural Resource Use in the Life Cycle

et al. 2021

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This study defines a methodology for the development of an economic indicator of natural resource use to be applied in the framework of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to integrate the assessment of the environmental performances of products or processes during their life-cycle. The indicator developed-called Commodity Life Cycle Costing (or C-LCC)-is based on market prices, therefore incorporating information from both the demand and supply sides. Monte Carlo analysis is used to take price volatility into account. Alternative versions of the indicator, based on open-source data or calculated considering European Union’s critical raw materials only, are also developed. The study also provides a comparison between the C-LCC indicator and ReCiPe’s Mineral and Fossil Resource Depletion indicators and applies the proposed methodology to several types of batteries for stationary energy storage.

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Life Cycle Assessment of Italian Electricity Scenarios to 2030

Cited by 32 publications

References 16 publications

Reclaimed Water for Vineyard Irrigation in a Mediterranean Context: Life Cycle Environmental Impacts, Life Cycle Costs, and Eco-Efficiency

Reclaimed Water for Vineyard Irrigation in a Mediterranean Context: Life Cycle Environmental Impacts, Life Cycle Costs, and Eco-Efficiency

Life Cycle Assessment of Stationary Storage Systems within the Italian Electric Network

The Commodity Life Cycle Costing Indicator. An Economic Measure of Natural Resource Use in the Life Cycle

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