Coupling life cycle assessment with energy system analysis

One of the main drivers for switching the current energy system from a conventional fossil-base to one dominated by renewable technologies is climate change. However, energy system transformation aiming at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may lead to increases in other types of environmental impacts. Incorporating environmental impacts beyond climate change into future energy systems is required, in order to develop energy policies that do not, or at least can reduce, conflict with other goals.
With this as the background, this thesis couples life cycle assessment (LCA) with energy system analysis, to broaden the scope by including additional environmental impacts, and to switch from a direct emissions perspective to a life cycle perspective. For this purpose, a standard LCA approach is applied to assess energy technologies. Subsequently, the standard LCA is extended to couple with energy system models (ESM) for the assessment of multi-technological energy systems, from both life cycle and energy system perspectives. Considering the methodological challenges that occur due to differences between the models resulting from their different system boundaries, databases, and the levels of detail of their input data, the thesis introduces the Environmental Assessment Framework for Energy System Analysis (EAFESA) as a guideline for studies to cope with model coupling between LCA and ESM.
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This thesis includes four papers with different study aims. Paper A applies the standard LCA approach for technological assessment. As wind power is one of the most promising renewable energy sources worldwide, a case study assessing the environmental impacts of wind power technologies is conducted. Paper B develops the EAFESA framework and includes a case study to elaborate how to use the framework. Paper C and Paper D are two additional case studies applying the EAFESA framework for model coupling between LCA and ESM, considering, respectively, one of the two model coupling directions. The applications of the EAFESA framework in the case studies confirms the importance and benefits of “integrated thinking” as proposed by EAFESA, which allows minimizing the pitfalls of combining both models comprehensively. At the same time, EAFESA has the potential to raise awareness of issues not often discussed among policymakers. As shown, for example, the decarbonized electricity system will be accompanied by increased metal demand and urban land occupation. Nevertheless, metal demand could be decreased slightly, together with the decrease of GHG emissions, when the system expenditure increases insignificantly.