Abstract
A life cycle analysis was performed for the assessment of the environmental performances of three existing Italian power plants of comparable nominal power operating with different sources of renewable energy: Geothermal, solar, and wind. Primary data were used for building the life cycle inventories. The results are characterized by employing a wide portfolio of environmental indicators employing the ReCiPe 2016 and the ILCD 2011 Midpoint+ methods; normalization and weighting are also applied using the ReCiPe 2016 method at the endpoint level. The midpoint results demonstrate a good eco-profile of the geothermal power plant compared to other renewable energy systems and a definite step forward over the performance of the national energy mix. The Eco-Point single score calculation showed that wind energy is the best technology with a value of 0.0012 Eco-points/kWh, a result in line with previously documented life cycle analysis studies. Nevertheless, the geothermal power plant achieved a value of 0.0177 Eco-points/kWh which is close to that calculated for the photovoltaic plant (0.0087 Eco-points/kWh) and much lower than the national energy mix one (0.1240 Eco-points/kWh). Also, a scenario analysis allowed for a critical discussion about potential improvements to the environmental performance of the geothermal power plant.
Highlights
Geothermal energy is an important energy resource, largely contributing to limiting the use of fossil fuels, for both electricity and direct uses
Has a long tradition of geothermal energy utilization [12], with nearly 1 × 103 MWe installed in two areas of the Tuscany region (Larderello/Travale and Monte Amiata) operated by Enel Green Power
The results of life cycle analysis (LCA) can be expressed via a large number of environmental indicators and, generally, several impact categories are used to circumspectly detect the full range of ecological burdens associated with the investigated process or activity over the three environmental
Summary
Geothermal energy is an important energy resource, largely contributing to limiting the use of fossil fuels, for both electricity and direct uses (mainly heat for district heating). The geothermal power plants located in Tuscany have demonstrated high reliability, with equivalent operation time exceeding 7.5 × 103 hrs/yr and with a productivity of more than 6.2 × 103 GWh/yr [15]. Most of the PV plants in Italy are small (50 kWe. The productivity data show that the utilization factor of solar PV is much smaller than for geothermal, with an equivalent full-load operability of about 1.2 × 103 hrs/yr. The goal of this study is to compare the environmental performances of three power plants based respectively on geothermal, solar, and wind energy through the LCA methodology and grounding on robust and reliable primary data
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