The search for most cost-effective way of achieving environmental sustainability status in electricity generation: Environmental life cycle cost analysis of energy scenarios

Abstract

Over 80% of Alberta's electricity supply comes from fossil fuels; coal fired plants made up 43%. Alberta has announced its climate leadership plan, in which it is going to end electricity from coal and move towards sustainable power production. All categories of renewable energy sources, including bioenergy are expected to significantly contribute to the transition and transformation of Alberta's fossil-intensive electricity. As Alberta searches for measures to phasing out coal power plants, understanding the environmental and economic impact of alternatives can support decision-making. The main purpose of this research was to determine a cost-effective way of achieving environmental sustainability status in electricity generation. An environmental life cycle costing approach was applied to compare three biomass-based alternative scenarios, which represented energy transition and transformation in Alberta's electricity sector, with the prevailing scenario of coal-fired energy.All alternative energy scenarios showed environmental life cycle improvement from 47 to 92% for global warming, 46–90% for human health, and 47–91% for ecosystem impacts, when compared to a reference coal-fired generation scenario. On the other hand, the coal-fired electricity generation scenario demonstrated approximately 63–83% lower life cycle cost impact than alternative scenarios. The life cycle cost of wood biomass-based alternatives demonstrated 83–87% and 22–45% lower than the maximum and minimum average historical electricity generation cost for Alberta, respectively. Bioenergy can support the transition and transformation of coal power plants to a more sustainable power production.