SIXTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME
Project no: 502687
NEEDS
New Energy Externalities Developments for Sustainability
INTEGRATED PROJECT
Priority 6.1: Sustainable Energy Systems and, more specifically,
Sub-priority 6.1.3.2.5: Socio-economic tools and concepts for energy strategy.
Deliverable n° D17.3 – RS1a
“Analytical overview of the technical and scientific
production of the stream 1a”
Due date of deliverable: March 2009
Actual submission date: March 2009
Start date of project: 1 September 2004
Duration: 48 months
Organisation name for this deliverable: Edited by DLR, with contributions from Ambiente Italia,
CIEMAT, DLR, DONG Energy, EDF, esu-Services, ifeu, IFU, INE, KANLO, POLITO, PSI, RISOE,
University Chalmers, University Lund, University Stuttgart
Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2006)
PU
PP
RE
CO
Dissemination Level
Public
Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services)
Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services)
Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services)
X
1.
General objectives
Overall objective: The Research Stream will provide data on technical configurations, costs and life
cycle inventories for a wide range of key emerging energy technologies, with a focus on long term
technical developments. Based on these results, in cooperation with RS1b technology specific external
costs are quantified in particular for future technologies.
Objectives for the reporting period:
- Quantification of technology specific external costs for representative technologies from the
RS1a technology clusters.
- Implementation of a web-based LCA database to make RS1a LCA data publicly available.
Progress achieved:
-
Quantification of technology specific external costs: LCA data from RS1a and unit damage
costs from RS1b were used to calculate quantifiable external costs for reference technologies.
Work in the reporting period included in depth discussion of assumptions related to the
quantification of climate change damage costs and avoidance costs, resulting in a range of
values used for the quantification of technology related externalities.
-
Web-based LCA database: RS1a produced a unique LCA database covering a broad range of
electricity generation technologies, providing LCA data for different future base years (2025,
2050), and for different technology development scenarios. To make the LCA data available to
the public, a web-based database has been implemented that provide user friendly access to the
full set of RS1a LCA results.
Table 1: List of Research Stream 1a Deliverables and Technical Papers
WP N°
TITLE
D/TP n°
Other
D4.1
AUTHORS
WP4
Technical guideline on parameterisation of
life cycle inventory data
WP6
External costs from electricity generation for
RS1a reference technologies.
D6.1
WP7
Final report on technical data, costs and life
cycle inventories of advanced fossil fuel
D7.2
(contributions from all RS1a
partners)
PSI, IER
WP8
Final report on technical data, costs and life D8.2
cycle inventories of hydrogen technologies
INE
WP9
Final report on technical data, costs and life D9.2
cycle inventories of fuel cell power plants
Final report on technical data, costs and life D10.2
cycle inventories of offshore wind farms
Final report on technical data, costs and life D11.2
cycle inventories of PV applications
Final report on technical data, costs and life D12.2
cycle inventories of solar thermal power
plants
Final report on technical data, costs and life D13.2
cycle inventories of biomass power plants
POLITO, IFEU, DLR
WP14
Final report on technical data, costs and life D14.2
cycle inventories of nuclear power plants
EDF
WP15
LCA of background processes
D15.2
ESU
WP16
Final report on technical data, costs and
life cycle inventories of ocean energy
power plants
D16.1
SPOK
WP10
WP11
WP12
WP13
PSI
DONG Energy
Ambiente Italia
DLR, CIEMAT
IFEU, IER
2.
Scientific achievements and policy relevance
Workpackage 1: Specification of interfaces to the assessment of externalities and energy
modelling
No technical papers/deliverables in the reporting period.
Workpackage 2: Technology Foresight methods in LCA
No technical papers/deliverables in the reporting period.
Workpackage 3: Methodological framework for the assessment of futre cost data based on
experience curves
No technical papers/deliverables in the reporting period.
Workpackage 4: Development of parameterisation methods to derive transferable life cycle
inventories
Development of parameterisation methods to derive transferable life cycle inventories
WORKPACKAGE N°4
WP LEADER: PSI
CONTRIBUTING PARTNERS
Introduction
The environmental performance of energy technologies may vary in space and time, while their
main characteristics remain the same. The objective of this work package was the development of a
parameterisation method that facilitates the description of space- and time-dependent life cycle
data for energy systems. Results are intended to support the efficient specification of region- and
time-specific LCI datasets in reasonable resolution. This will improve the possibilities to assess
space- and time-dependent impact and external cost effects.
Abstract
The technical report of WP 4 provides some new ideas and proposes new methodologies on
parameterisation of LCA modelling that are intended to support further extensions of space and
time coverage.
Firstly, general aspects of an advanced parameterised LCA system are discussed. It is proposed
that the connection of the LCA model to a Geographical Information System (GIS) should be
considered because several spatial parameters can be treated systematically in a GIS software. A
couple of explicit examples of parameters relevant for energy systems under the perspective of
space-dependency, time-dependency and technology-dependency that could be implemented into
an advanced LCA system are provided. For a number of advanced electricity generation
technologies, overviews on important space- and time-dependent parameters are given.
Structure (organization of the work)
-PSI developed and distributed within NEEDS a questionnaire on parameterisation of LCA of
energy systems. The answers have been analysed for the report
-The general framework of the parameterisation methodology has been developed.
-Several explicit examples for time-dependency, space-dependency and technology-dependency of
LCA parameters are provided.
-For different advanced electricity generation systems, sets of relevant space- and time-dependent
parameters have been collected (partly quantitatively and partly qualitatively).
Conclusions
Generally, it can be concluded that the possibility and appropriateness of parameterisation depends
much on the specific energy system, in particular for the space-dependency. The focus of the
present work was more on the variety of parameters that have to be considered rather than
completeness. The implementation of the proposed methods up to a running advanced LCA model
would require deeper investigations of the variety of energy systems and background processes and
would need substantial resources. The implementation can proceed in an iterative way because
already a partial parameterisation can be advantageous for further extensions of LCA models and
databases in view of the large number of parameters in present LCA modelling.
Workpackage 5: Database on life cycle inventories and cost data
Implementation of web-based LCA database
WORKPACKAGE N°5
WP LEADER: ESU-services
CONTRIBUTING PARTNERS
ifu
Introduction
RS1a produced a unique LCA database covering a broad range of electricity generation
technologies, providing LCA data for different future base years (2025, 2050), and for different
technology development scenarios. To make the LCA data available to the public, a web-based
database has been implemented that provide user friendly access to the full set of RS1a LCA
results.
Abstract
Structure (organization of the work)
Conclusions
Workpackage 6: Quantification of technology specific external costs
Quantification of technology specific external costs
WORKPACKAGE N°6
WP LEADER: DLR
CONTRIBUTING PARTNERS
ESU, AMBIT, POLITO, EDF, PSI, DONG, IFEU, INE, SPOK
Introduction
The objective of the work was to provide a quantification of external costs for RS1a reference
technologies. The calculation of external costs per unit electricity requires the combination of the
environmental interventions per kWh for each technology assessed (e.g. SO2-emissions per kWh,
m2-land use per kWh, CO2-emissions per kWh) with the external costs per unit environmental
interventions (e.g. Euro per tonne of SO2 emitted at a specific place). The environmental
interventions are taken from the LCI database managed under WP5, the external costs per unit
environmental intervention are a result from Stream 1b.
Structure (organization of the work)
DLR as WP-leader developed an Excel tool into which LCA data from the WP5 LCA database can
be imported, and which combines LCA data with unit damage cost data provided by RS1b. After
data processing DLR submitted the completed Excel spreadsheet to the relevant RS1a partners for
review. After taking into account modifications, results were transformed into the WP6
Deliverable.
Some ongoing discussions were related to the treatment of climate change damage costs and
climate change avoidance costs. Several discussion papers were circulated across Research
Streams. It was concluded to use a range of values for both climate change damage costs and
avoidance costs. Depending on the underlying assumptions, climate change externalities dominate
the external cost assessment.
Conclusions
In spite of the remaining uncertainties related to the quantification of climate change related external costs,
it seems to be a robust result that external costs of future low carbon energy technologies are relatively low
compared to internal costs. Some sources of potential external costs (e.g. risks of nuclear accidents,
proliferation risks, impacts on marine ecosystems, etc.) were not addressed.
Workpackage 7: Life cycle inventory and costs of advanced fossil fuels
No technical papers/deliverables in the reporting period. A draft of the final deliverable has been
available in the previous reporting period. The deliverable has been finalised after an internal review
process.
Workpackage 8: Life cycle inventory and costs of hydrogen technologies
No technical papers/deliverables in the reporting period. A draft of the final deliverable has been
available in the previous reporting period. The deliverable has been finalised after an internal review
process.
Workpackage 9: Life cycle inventory and costs of fuel cell power plants
No technical papers/deliverables in the reporting period. A draft of the final deliverable has been
available in the previous reporting period. The deliverable has been finalised after an internal review
process.
Workpackage 10: Life cycle inventory and costs of offshore wind turbines
No technical papers/deliverables in the reporting period. A draft of the final deliverable has been
available in the previous reporting period. The deliverable has been finalised after an internal review
process.
Workpackage 11: Life cycle inventory and costs of PV installations
No technical papers/deliverables in the reporting period. A draft of the final deliverable has been
available in the previous reporting period. The deliverable has been finalised after an internal review
process.
Workpackage 12: Life cycle inventory and costs of solar thermal power plants
No technical papers/deliverables in the reporting period. A draft of the final deliverable has been
available in the previous reporting period. The deliverable has been finalised after an internal review
process.
Workpackage 13: Life cycle inventory and costs of bioenergy plants
No technical papers/deliverables in the reporting period. A draft of the final deliverable has been
available in the previous reporting period. The deliverable has been finalised after an internal review
process.
Workpackage 14: Life cycle inventory and costs of advanced nuclear technologies
No technical papers/deliverables in the reporting period. A draft of the final deliverable has been
available in the previous reporting period. The deliverable has been finalised after an internal review
process.
Workpackage 15: Background processes
No technical papers/deliverables in the reporting period. A draft of the final deliverable has been
available in the previous reporting period. The deliverable has been finalised after an internal review
process.
Workpackage 16: Ocean energy
No technical papers/deliverables in the reporting period. A draft of the final deliverable has been
available in the previous reporting period. The deliverable has been finalised after an internal review
process.
3.
Conclusions
RS1a provides a comprehensive set of technical data, costs, and LCA data for future electricity
generation technologies. Results show that there is a large potential for further technical development
for most of the technologies analyzed, leading to significant reduction of costs and to improvement of
the environmental performance. The representation of LCA data for future electricity generation
technologies by base year (2025, 2050) and technology development scenario is a unique new product.
The web-based LCA-database developed in NEEDS allows public access to LCA results.