IFC-enabled LCA for carbon assessment in pumped storage hydropower (PSH) with concrete face rockfill dams

Abstract

The construction sector in China released 5.08 billion tons of CO2 in 2020, which accounted for 50.9% of national carbon emissions. With the establishment of a clean energy system, an increasing number of pumped storage hydropower (PSH) plants are scheduled to be constructed for energy storage. However, a gap remains in calculating carbon emissions for each specific building during design and later construction, considering the specific design parameters that affect these emissions. This paper provides a life cycle assessment (LCA) method for integrated carbon assessment for PSH design projects based on industry foundation classes (IFC), and the method is used to calculate the carbon emissions from each building directly at the design stage. PSH project carbon emissions are calculated by estimating the consumption of diesel, electricity and materials, together with the corresponding conversion factors. The proposed method is validated with data from real-world PSH projects and then used to analyze the carbon emissions of different buildings to determine the influence of various factors. This study could benefit future research related to the green evaluation of PSH design projects by improving carbon emission estimation based on IFC.