The international workshop on electricity data for life cycle inventories

Curran, Mary Ann; Mann, Margaret; Norris, Gregory A.

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2002.03.001

Cited by 230 publications

(159 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…On an hourly basis, hydro reservoir plants are often dispatched to meet daily peaks; however, on an annual basis, hydro may be considered an energy-constrained resource, because only a fixed amount of water is available annually and the system tends to maximize total production over a long period not affecting overall emissions [15,23,24].…”

Section: Hydro Reservoirmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marginal Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Electricity Generation in Portugal and Implications for Electric Vehicles

Garcia

Freire

2016

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This article assesses marginal greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of electricity generation in Portugal to understand the impact of activities that affect electricity demand in the near term. In particular, it investigates the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) in the Portuguese light-duty fleet considering different displacement and charging scenarios (vehicle technologies displaced, EV charging time). Coal and natural gas were identified as the marginal energy sources, but their contribution to the margin depended on the hour of the day, time of year, and system load, causing marginal emissions from electricity to vary significantly. Results show that for an electricity system with a high share of non-dispatchable renewable power, such as the Portuguese system, marginal emissions are considerably higher than average emissions. Because of the temporal variability in the marginal electricity supply, the time of charging may have a major influence on the GHG emissions of EVs. Off-peak charging leads to higher GHG emissions than peak charging, due to a higher contribution of coal to the margin. Furthermore, compared to an all-conventional fleet, EV introduction causes an increase in overall GHG emissions in most cases. However, EV effects are very dependent on the time of charging and the assumptions about the displaced technology.

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Section: Hydro Reservoirmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marginal Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Electricity Generation in Portugal and Implications for Electric Vehicles

Garcia

Freire

2016

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“…Electricity supply is often highlighted as a significant hot spot in LCA results [6,7]. LCAs are typically performed using attributional approaches, and thus, electricity production has been modeled using average data, called grid mix data.…”

Section: Electricity Supply Modeling In Lca A) Electricity Supply Modmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implications of integrating electricity supply dynamics into life cycle assessment: A case study of renewable distributed generation

et al. 2014

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Electricity supply is frequently cited as a significant hot spot in life cycle assessment (LCA) results. Despite its importance, however, LCA research continues to overuse simplified methodologies regarding electricity supply modeling. This work aims to demonstrate the usefulness of electricity trade analysis (proposed model) for integrating the short-term dynamics of electricity supply and refining LCA results. Distributed generation using renewable energy is applied as a case study to demonstrate how electricity trade analysis provides more refined estimates when environmental impact abatements are assessed compared with the conventional (simplified) approaches in LCA. Grid-connected photovoltaic panel (3 kWp monoand poly-crystalline) and micro-wind turbine (1, 10 and 30 kW) environmental impact abatements are investigated by determining the displaced marginal electricity production on an hourly basis. The results indicate that environmental impact abatements calculated using the developed short-term time horizon approach can be significantly different (up to 200% difference) from those obtained using a simplified approach. Recommendations are provided to LCA practitioners to address this issue of differing results.

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“…The LCA community has a strong track record in conceptual debate and innovation, exemplified, not least, by the development of the attributional-consequential distinction itself (Curran et al 2005). It is also worth noting that such innovations can be highly relevant and useful to other fields of environmental accounting beyond LCA (Brander 2015), and this enhances the significance of the debate further.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Response to “Attributional life cycle assessment: is a land-use baseline necessary?”—appreciation, renouncement, and further discussion

Brander

2015

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose Soimakallio et al. (Int J Life Cycle Assess 20(10):1364-1375, 2015 establish the need for baselines in attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) and thereby provide an important milestone in the evolving conceptualisation of both attributional and consequential LCA. The purpose of this commentary is to acknowledge Soimakallio et al.'s contribution, identify its implications for a number previously published papers, critique the use of natural regeneration baselines, and offer some further thoughts on the conceptual nature of attributional and consequential approaches. Methods The methods used in this study were comparative analysis with other forms of attributional inventory and an illustrative example of alternative 'natural' baselines for carbon sequestration. Results and discussion The commentary concurs that attributional LCA requires baselines and that attributional studies are not inventories of absolute emissions and removals, contrary to previous statements by the present author. Nevertheless, a number of previous statements on attributional and consequential methods remain largely unchanged: attributional studies can be aggregated to approximate total (anthropogenic) environmental impacts; substitution is conceptually inappropriate for attributional LCA; and the attributional-consequential distinction can be applied to other forms of environmental assessment such as national, corporate, and community greenhouse gas inventories (attributional), and project and policy-level greenhouse gas assessments (consequential). A further finding is that natural regeneration baselines may not be appropriate for attributional studies and that some arguments in their favour may be symptomatic of a misconception of attributional LCA. Conclusions Soimakallio et al. (Int J Life Cycle Assess 20(10):1364-1375, 2015) make an extremely useful contribution to the evolving conceptualisation of attributional and consequential approaches, which is highly important for methodological development and choosing the appropriate method for a given purpose.

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The international workshop on electricity data for life cycle inventories

Cited by 230 publications

References 5 publications

Marginal Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Electricity Generation in Portugal and Implications for Electric Vehicles

Marginal Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Electricity Generation in Portugal and Implications for Electric Vehicles

Implications of integrating electricity supply dynamics into life cycle assessment: A case study of renewable distributed generation

Response to “Attributional life cycle assessment: is a land-use baseline necessary?”—appreciation, renouncement, and further discussion

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