TY - JOUR
T1 - Life-cycle impact assessment of renewable electricity generation systems in the United States
AU - Mahmud, M. A. Parvez
AU - Huda, Nazmul
AU - Farjana, Shahjadi Hisan
AU - Lang, Candace
PY - 2020/5
Y1 - 2020/5
N2 - Renewable electricity generation technologies provide a more sustainable solution than the non-renewables. However, as a complete system, renewable energy generation systems have some overall environmental impacts on humankind, resources and ecosystems. This paper will address the environmental effects caused by different types of renewable plants through life-cycle assessment. A comparative study is done among solar PV, biomass, and pumped storage hydropower plants in the United States. Life-cycle impact analysis has been carried out by the Eco-indicator 99, TRACI (Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other Environmental Impacts), CED (Cumulative Energy Demand), Ecopoints 97, RMF (Raw Material Flows) and IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) methods, using the SimaPro software. The impacts are considered in 10 mid-point impact categories and three end-point indicators. The results show that pumped storage hydropower plants have the highest impact on human health (7.74E-05/kWh) and the ecosystem (3.35E-06/kWh), whereas biomass plants have the maximum effect on resources (4.79E-07/kWh). Overall, the solar PV plants are found to be much more environment-friendly than other renewable electricity generation systems. These findings will guide investors in installing sustainable and clean power plants.
AB - Renewable electricity generation technologies provide a more sustainable solution than the non-renewables. However, as a complete system, renewable energy generation systems have some overall environmental impacts on humankind, resources and ecosystems. This paper will address the environmental effects caused by different types of renewable plants through life-cycle assessment. A comparative study is done among solar PV, biomass, and pumped storage hydropower plants in the United States. Life-cycle impact analysis has been carried out by the Eco-indicator 99, TRACI (Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other Environmental Impacts), CED (Cumulative Energy Demand), Ecopoints 97, RMF (Raw Material Flows) and IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) methods, using the SimaPro software. The impacts are considered in 10 mid-point impact categories and three end-point indicators. The results show that pumped storage hydropower plants have the highest impact on human health (7.74E-05/kWh) and the ecosystem (3.35E-06/kWh), whereas biomass plants have the maximum effect on resources (4.79E-07/kWh). Overall, the solar PV plants are found to be much more environment-friendly than other renewable electricity generation systems. These findings will guide investors in installing sustainable and clean power plants.
KW - Renewable-energy technologies
KW - Life-cycle assessment
KW - Environmental performance
KW - Greenhouse-gas emission
KW - Uncertainty analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075815662&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.renene.2019.11.090
DO - 10.1016/j.renene.2019.11.090
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85075815662
SN - 0960-1481
VL - 151
SP - 1028
EP - 1045
JO - Renewable Energy
JF - Renewable Energy
ER -