Аннотация
Before new technologies enter the market, their environmental superiority
over competing options must be asserted based on a life cycle approach.
However, when applying the prevailing status-quo Life Cycle Assessment
(LCA) approach to future renewable energy systems, one does not distinguish
between impacts which are âimportedâ into the system due to the
âbackground systemâ (e.g. due to supply of materials or final
energy for the production of the energy system), and what is the
improvement potential of these technologies compared to competitors
(e.g. due to process and system innovations or diffusion effects).
This paper investigates a dynamic approach towards the LCA of renewable
energy technologies and proves that for all renewable energy chains,
the inputs of finite energy resources and emissions of greenhouse
gases are extremely low compared with the conventional system. With
regard to the other environmental impacts the findings do not reveal
any clear verdict for or against renewable energies. Future development
will enable a further reduction of environmental impacts of renewable
energy systems. Different factors are responsible for this development,
such as progress with respect to technical parameters of energy converters,
in particular, improved efficiency; emissions characteristics; increased
lifetime, etc.; advances with regard to the production process of
energy converters and fuels; and advances with regard to âexternalâ
services originating from conventional energy and transport systems,
for instance, improved electricity or process heat supply for system
production and ecologically optimized transport systems for fuel
transportation.The application of renewable energy sources might
modify not only the background system, but also further downstream
aspects, such as consumer behavior. This effect is, however, strongly
context and technology dependent.
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