Helmholtz Joint Initiative „Energy System 2050“ - Research Topic 4: Life-Cycle-Oriented Sustainability Analysis at System Level (ES2050 –FT4)
Duration: July 2015 until June 2019
Funded by: Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Project Participants: Karlsruher Insitut für Technologie (KIT) Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) IPP Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf (HZDR)
Project Manager at the Institute of Networked Energy Systems: Dr. Tobias Naegler
Project Description: To successfully continue and complete the energy transition in Germany (“Energiewende”), it is important that technical and scientific, ecological, economic, and social aspects of the transformation be analysed comprehensively and at an early stage and incorporated in the process. In this research topic, scientists transfer the method of Life-Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) to the level of energy systems.
Using life-cycle methodology, they study technical, ecological, economic and societal aspects of Storage and Grids, Bioenergy, and Hydrogen-based Pathways. In doing so, they also identify interactions with aspects outside the energy sector, such as competing land uses, and analyse social indicators, such as effects on employment and income, or the perception and acceptance of technologies. The objective of the studies is a state-of-the-art methodology of Life-Cycle-oriented Sustainability Analysis of energy technologies focused on key parameters and tested on the basis of the three concrete examples.
Within ES2050-FT4, TT-STB broadens the scope of ecologic, economic, and social indicators to assess evaluate national and international transformation scenarios for energy systems. In particular, the analysis comprises the demand of – in particular critical – resources in energy technologies, energy-related greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions (beyond CO2), the analysis of the land consumption for wind energy, photovoltaics and biogenic fuels, economic indicators such as system costs, levelized cost of electricity and heat, investments, dependence on imports, etc. and – if applicable – the assessment of acceptance and other indicators describing the social sustainability of the transformation process. In contrast and in addition to the contributions of the cooperation partners, the focus of STB’s analyses focusses on the entire energy system (power, heat, mobility) and the effects of the interaction between these sectors with respect to the sustainability assessment of the energy system.
Further information on the project ES2050: