Life Cycle Performance of Various Energy Sources Used in the Czech Republic

Abstract

As both the human population and living standards grow, so does the worldwide electricity demand. However, the power sector is also one of the biggest environmental polluters. Therefore, options are currently being sought aimed at reducing environmental impacts, one of the potential tools for which concerns the use of life cycle assessment. This study, therefore, focuses on the most commonly used nonrenewable (black coal, lignite, natural gas and nuclear) and renewable sources (wind, hydro and photovoltaic) in the Czech Republic in terms of their construction, operation, and decommissioning periods. Environmental impacts are assessed via the use of selected impact categories by way of product environmental footprint methodology. The results highlight the potential environmental impacts associated with electricity generation for each of the primary energy sources. Black coal and lignite power plants were found to contribute most to the global warming, resource use, energy carriers and respiratory inorganics categories. On the other hand, the impact on water depletion and resource use, mineral and metals categories were found to be most significantly affected by the production of electricity from photovoltaic power plants. Finally, it is proposed that the results be employed to design scenarios for the future energy mix.

Towards Climate Neutrality: Economic Impacts, Opportunities and Risks

“…The empirical evidence for a large sample of countries at different stages of development since 1960 to the present shows that an increase of 10 percentage points in the ratio of private investment to GDP corresponds to an increase of 3.1 points in the long-term growth rate of per capita income, higher than the elasticity of 2.7 obtained between total investment and growth 8 . Therefore, good public policies that encourage permanent increases in private investment rates lead to increases in long-term economic growth and welfare.…”

“…The research corresponds to the strategy of Latvia for Achieving Climate Neutrality until 2050 8 and the National Energy and Climate Plan of Latvia 2021-2030 9 , which highlight a transition process to sustainable energy system, as well as the high importance of secure and affordable energy.…”

“…In 2021, the leading supplier of coal was also Russia (46%), although import volumes were down on previous years, followed by the US (15%) and Australia (13%). 8 As can be seen from Table 3, many EU Member States have seen major -even several times -increases in the price of gas in recent years. Given that electricity prices are to a large extent linked to gas prices on the EU market, similar trends have also been observed in electricity prices.…”

Life cycle assessment of the LimoFish process for the full valorization of anchovy fillet leftovers

“…In this scenario (named SUAD+CHP), the drying process is not meant to remove the presence of water, but principally to evaporate the impurities of non-recycled limonene which may inhibit the bacterial growth by compromising the biogas production. 32 The heat consumption and the environmental impacts associated to the AD are calculated through the Ecoinvent database. 24 In agreement with previous studies, 33 the digestate produced in this phase (185 g/FU), is excluded from the system boundaries.…”

Renewable Energy Sources vs. an Air Quality Improvement in Urbanized Areas - the Metropolitan Area of Kraków Case

“…The increased peak demand for electricity in the summer, noted especially in recent years in Poland, can be ensured thanks to the use of photovoltaic panels as an energy source (Sobik, 2019). Following the example of Czech (Raport ERU, 2018;Pálenský and Lupíšek, 2019;Sojkova et al, 2019;Šerešová et al, 2020;Tanil and Jurek, 2020) and German (Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, 2018), that is, in areas with similar insolation conditions, it can be concluded that the potential for the development of photovoltaics in Poland is significant and still unused.…”