Dynamic life cycle assessment modelling of a NZEB building

Abstract

Most of the developed countries are struggling to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere to meet the international agreements. One of the strategies to reduce climate change impacts is the decarbonisation of the electricity production: generation mixes are more and more based on renewable energy sources that are replacing the traditional fossil fuels.The effect of the electricity decarbonisation production reflects in the life cycle impacts of buildings, particularly if they are strongly dependent on the electrical energy as the main energy vector. The traditional Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) cannot capture the effect of lowering emission factors for electricity generation since only static values are considered. Moreover, also the grid-building interaction should be properly taken into account in the life cycle assessment of buildings using dynamic calculations. A dynamic life cycle analysis is the methodology that can overcome these limitations through the introduction of dynamic parameters within the life cycle inventory and in the life cycle impact assessment stages.A Dynamic Life Cycle Assessment (DLCA) is proposed in order to evaluate the consequences of electricity decarbonisation on the LCA of an “all electric” Nearly Zero Energy Building (NZEB). A comparison with literature results about similar constructions is finally provided.