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Global-Warming Potential Life-Cycle Assessment

Measurement of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions involves calculating the global warming potential of energy sources through life-cycle assessment, presenting findings in units of CO2e per kWh. The goal is to assess emissions from material/fuel extraction through construction, operation, and waste management. In 2014, the IPCC harmonized CO2e findings from hundreds of studies on major global electricity sources. Coal has the highest emissions, followed by natural gas, while solar, wind and nuclear have low emissions. Hydropower, biomass, geothermal and ocean power can also be low-carbon but individual designs may increase emissions. Advances in efficiency for some technologies since publication were not included, such as potential reductions in

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27 views1 page

Global-Warming Potential Life-Cycle Assessment

Measurement of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions involves calculating the global warming potential of energy sources through life-cycle assessment, presenting findings in units of CO2e per kWh. The goal is to assess emissions from material/fuel extraction through construction, operation, and waste management. In 2014, the IPCC harmonized CO2e findings from hundreds of studies on major global electricity sources. Coal has the highest emissions, followed by natural gas, while solar, wind and nuclear have low emissions. Hydropower, biomass, geothermal and ocean power can also be low-carbon but individual designs may increase emissions. Advances in efficiency for some technologies since publication were not included, such as potential reductions in

Uploaded by

Dave Soriano
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Measurement of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions involves calculating the global-warming

potential of energy sources through life-cycle assessment. These are usually sources of only
electrical energy but sometimes sources of heat are evaluated. [1] The findings are presented in units
of global warming potential per unit of electrical energy generated by that source. The scale uses the
global warming potential unit, the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO
2e), and the unit of electrical energy, the kilowatt hour (kWh). The goal of such assessments is to
cover the full life of the source, from material and fuel mining through construction to operation and
waste management.
In 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change harmonized the carbon dioxide
equivalent (CO
2e) findings of the major electricity generating sources in use worldwide. This was done by analyzing
the findings of hundreds of individual scientific papers assessing each energy source. [2] Coal is by far
the worst emitter, followed by natural gas, with solar, wind and nuclear all low-carbon. Hydropower,
biomass, geothermal and ocean power may generally be low-carbon, but poor design or other
factors could result in higher emissions from individual power stations.
For all technologies, advances in efficiency, and therefore reductions in CO
2e since the time of publication, have not been included. For example, the total life cycle emissions
from wind power may have lessened since publication. Similarly, due to the time frame over which
the studies were conducted, nuclear Generation II reactor's CO
2e results are presented and not the global warming potential of Generation III reactors. Other
limitations of the data include: a) missing life cycle phases, and, b) uncertainty as to where to define
the cut-off point in the global warming potential of an energy source. The latter is important in
assessing a combined electrical grid in the real world, rather than the established practice of simply
assessing the energy source in isolation.

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