Abstract
The increase of greenhouse gases (GHG) generated by the burning of fossil fuels has been recognized as one of the main causes of climate change (CC). Different countries of the world have developed new policies on national energy security directed to the use of renewable energies mainly, ocean energy being one of them. The implementation of ocean energy is increasing worldwide. However, the use of these technologies is not exempt from the generation of potential environmental impacts throughout their life cycle. In this context, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a holistic approach used to evaluate the environmental impacts of a product or system throughout its entire life cycle. LCA studies need to be conducted to foster the development of ocean energy technologies (OET) in sustainable management. In this paper, a systematic review was conducted and 18 LCA studies of OET were analyzed. Most of the LCA studies are focused on wave and tidal energy. CC is the most relevant impact category evaluated, which is generated mostly by raw material extraction, manufacturing stage and shipping operations. Finally, the critical stages of the systems evaluated were identified, together with, the opportunity areas to promote an environmental management for ocean energy developers.
Highlights
Nowadays, energy production is mainly based in fossil fuels accounting for an 81.1% of total power generation, contributing 33,481 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2015 [1]
The functional unit of all projects is 1 kWh of electricity delivered, similar to what has been established as Functional Unit (FU) in other life cycle assessment (LCA) studies on power generation systems in order to be consistent throughout the study so that the results can be comparable and provide useful information for the energy sector [12,29,63]
During the last two decades, research and technical development of ocean energy systems has been growing and the study of the possible environmental impacts and benefits related to this renewable technology
Summary
Energy production is mainly based in fossil fuels accounting for an 81.1% of total power generation, contributing 33,481 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2015 [1]. It is important to establish priorities to accelerate cost reduction and market uptake of key low-carbon technologies to improve the environmental impact of energy generation in the world [5]. This type of technology has been directed to the use of renewable energies to minimize potential environmental threat [6,7]. This kind of energy is reliable, usable and environmentally friendly for power generation in a sustainable and decentralized way to provide the electricity supply at medium and small scale [7]. It is estimated that renewable energy accounted for 26% of the world’s energy generation in 2018 [8]
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