Environmental and ecological life cycle inventories for present and future power systems in Europe (ECLIPSE)

Funding organisation: European Commission, DG Research (Project No. NNE5-2001-00071)

Cooperation:

• DLR,
• Ambiente Italia srl (Co-ordination),
• Electricité de France (F),
• ESU-Services (CH),
• Fortum Power and Heat Oy (FIN),
• IER,
• University Stuttgart (D),
• KEMA Nederland b.v. (NL),
• Vattenfall AB,
• Generation (S)´

Duration: January 2002 to December 2003

Contact: Dr. Wolfram Krewitt, Dr. Peter Viebahn

Background:

Project results available at www.eclipse-eu.org

Überblicksvortrag auf deutsch

The current use of Life Cycle Inventories (LCI) for energy system modelling and planning is limited by two main factors:

• lack of harmonisation and transparency in the methodology used in LCA studies
• lack of updated public database on emerging technologies, in particular on new and decentralised renewable electricity generation systems.

The general objective of the project is to overcome these limitations. More specifically the goal is to provide potential users with

• a coherent methodological framework, including application-dependent methodological guidelines and data format requirements related to the quantification of environmental impacts from new and decentralised power systems in Europe based on a life cycle approach,
• a harmonised set of public, coherent, transparent and updated LCI data on new and decentralised power systems, in a format which will make them comparable to existing data of other energy technologies, easily adaptable to local conditions and technological improvement and up-datable.

Project results will increase the credibility, diffusion and exploitation of LCI as a support tool for energy-environment-economy modelling (like ExternE), energy planning as well as for other uses.

The work is subdivided in four workpackages plus a general workpackage for the project management:

In WP 1 ‘Specification of Application-dependent Requirements’ data requirements for LCI are identified as a response to different potential applications, with a strong specific focus on energy-environment-economy modelling. Screening criteria include e.g. necessary level of detail, acceptable uncertainty threshold, importance of site dependent parameters, use of generic versus plant specific data, etc. WP1 will suggest a data format that supports the communication and presentation of key LCI data for specific applications, taking again ExternE-type applications as a starting point. The WP1 will last 6 months, from month 0 to 6. The deliverables of WP 1 will serve as input for WP2 and WP3

In WP 2 ‘LCI Methodological guidelines’ guidelines on how to carry out an LCI for electricity and heat generation systems, with specific focus on new and decentralised systems, are developed. Typical methodological problems will include: Choice of system boundaries, primary energy conversion rules, allocation rules, choice of the mix, substitution rules in case of system expansion, sensitivity analysis to model marginal technological progress for future energy systems. The guidelines will be consistent and add up significant value with respect to the relevant norms ISO 14040-14043, ISO7TR 14049, ISO/TR 14025 and ISO 13600 and 13601. The WP2 will last 4 months, from month 2 to 6. The deliverables of WP 2 will serve as input for WP2 and WP3

The goal of WP3 ‘LCI of New and Decentralised Systems’ is to fill the current gap of consistent and reliable data on present and future new and decentralised technologies, by creating a harmonised and coherent LCI data-set, which is of crucial importance for any energy modelling, forecasting and planning activity. The work will cover about 100 different possible configurations of five main technology types, i.e. PV, wind, fuel cells, biomass and CHP technologies. Sensitivity analysis to tackle with rapid technological improvement and local conditions will be carried out.

For each technology, a three-step procedure will be used to generate the LCI:

1. Description of the different existing and future systems (power, used...). Determination of the influencing parameters of each system, and estimation of marginal technological improvement potential.
2. Collection of new and updated data in the literature (not only LCA) on existing and future systems.
3. Survey on existing plants and production factories in different countries

The WP3 will last 16 months, from month 4 to 20. It will provide three deliverables, i.e. an interim report, a final harmonised set of LCI data and an additional report explaining the technologies, their life cycle and examples of sensitivity analysis.

WP 4 ‘Dissemination and Exploitation of Results’ will guarantee that the database produced will be fully available – and up-datable, as a reliable and highly transparent input for any theoretical model that needs LCI data of new and decentralised energy production systems. The use for energy-economy-environment modelling will be facilitated by explicit examples. A large set of potential end-users will be addressed by a systematic use of ITC technologies. The WP4 will have two parts: a first part from month 11 to 12, during which a project web-site will be set up and the first part of the TIP will be elaborated; and a second part, from month 20 to 24, during which all the other deliverables will be completed (see Table B2).