The environmental impacts and the carbon intensity of geothermal energy: A case study on the Hellisheiði plant
Geothermal energy, alongside other low-carbon and renewable energies, is set to play a key role in decarbonising the power generation industry to meet the Paris Agreement goal. Thus far the majority of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies focused on enhanced geothermal plants. However, conventional g...
Published in: | Environment International |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Elsevier
2019
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2019.105226 https://doaj.org/article/daa3d5df138847bc9acf2d420f414ac8 |
id |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:daa3d5df138847bc9acf2d420f414ac8 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:daa3d5df138847bc9acf2d420f414ac8 2023-05-15T16:52:08+02:00 The environmental impacts and the carbon intensity of geothermal energy: A case study on the Hellisheiði plant Andrea Paulillo Aberto Striolo Paola Lettieri 2019-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2019.105226 https://doaj.org/article/daa3d5df138847bc9acf2d420f414ac8 EN eng Elsevier http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019318689 https://doaj.org/toc/0160-4120 0160-4120 doi:10.1016/j.envint.2019.105226 https://doaj.org/article/daa3d5df138847bc9acf2d420f414ac8 Environment International, Vol 133, Iss , Pp - (2019) Environmental sciences GE1-350 article 2019 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2019.105226 2022-12-31T12:03:00Z Geothermal energy, alongside other low-carbon and renewable energies, is set to play a key role in decarbonising the power generation industry to meet the Paris Agreement goal. Thus far the majority of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies focused on enhanced geothermal plants. However, conventional geothermal plants that harness hydrothermal reservoirs dominate the production of electricity from geothermal energy worldwide. This article focuses on Hellisheiði, a combined heat and power double flash geothermal plant located in Iceland, with an installed capacity of 303.3 MW of electricity and 133 MW of hot water. The study has a twofold goal: (i) identify hot spots in the life cycle and, where possible, suggest improvements, and (ii) understand the potential of geothermal energy to decarbonise the power generation industry. First, a detailed LCA study has been performed on Hellisheiði, with cradle-to-grave system boundaries and detailed site-specific data obtained from the literature. The analysis identifies consumption of diesel for drilling and use of steel for wells casing and construction of the power plant as the main hot spots. Second, carbon intensities of electricity production for various possible configurations of the Hellisheiði power plant (including single flash, and power-only production) have been compared with those of other geothermal plants and other energy sources. Different allocation procedures have been used to allocate impacts between electricity and hot water where necessary, and Monte Carlo simulations have been used to estimate uncertainties of Hellisheiði’s carbon intensities. The comparison shows that the carbon intensity of Hellisheiði is in the range of 15–24 g CO2-eq./kWh, which is similar to those of binary cycle geothermal plants, solar (photovoltaic) and hydropower, lower than other geothermal technologies and fossil-based technologies, and higher than nuclear and onshore wind. Keywords: Life Cycle Assessment, Carbon intensity, Environmental impacts, Geothermal energy, Uncertainty ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Environment International 133 105226 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
spellingShingle |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Andrea Paulillo Aberto Striolo Paola Lettieri The environmental impacts and the carbon intensity of geothermal energy: A case study on the Hellisheiði plant |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
description |
Geothermal energy, alongside other low-carbon and renewable energies, is set to play a key role in decarbonising the power generation industry to meet the Paris Agreement goal. Thus far the majority of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies focused on enhanced geothermal plants. However, conventional geothermal plants that harness hydrothermal reservoirs dominate the production of electricity from geothermal energy worldwide. This article focuses on Hellisheiði, a combined heat and power double flash geothermal plant located in Iceland, with an installed capacity of 303.3 MW of electricity and 133 MW of hot water. The study has a twofold goal: (i) identify hot spots in the life cycle and, where possible, suggest improvements, and (ii) understand the potential of geothermal energy to decarbonise the power generation industry. First, a detailed LCA study has been performed on Hellisheiði, with cradle-to-grave system boundaries and detailed site-specific data obtained from the literature. The analysis identifies consumption of diesel for drilling and use of steel for wells casing and construction of the power plant as the main hot spots. Second, carbon intensities of electricity production for various possible configurations of the Hellisheiði power plant (including single flash, and power-only production) have been compared with those of other geothermal plants and other energy sources. Different allocation procedures have been used to allocate impacts between electricity and hot water where necessary, and Monte Carlo simulations have been used to estimate uncertainties of Hellisheiði’s carbon intensities. The comparison shows that the carbon intensity of Hellisheiði is in the range of 15–24 g CO2-eq./kWh, which is similar to those of binary cycle geothermal plants, solar (photovoltaic) and hydropower, lower than other geothermal technologies and fossil-based technologies, and higher than nuclear and onshore wind. Keywords: Life Cycle Assessment, Carbon intensity, Environmental impacts, Geothermal energy, Uncertainty ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Andrea Paulillo Aberto Striolo Paola Lettieri |
author_facet |
Andrea Paulillo Aberto Striolo Paola Lettieri |
author_sort |
Andrea Paulillo |
title |
The environmental impacts and the carbon intensity of geothermal energy: A case study on the Hellisheiði plant |
title_short |
The environmental impacts and the carbon intensity of geothermal energy: A case study on the Hellisheiði plant |
title_full |
The environmental impacts and the carbon intensity of geothermal energy: A case study on the Hellisheiði plant |
title_fullStr |
The environmental impacts and the carbon intensity of geothermal energy: A case study on the Hellisheiði plant |
title_full_unstemmed |
The environmental impacts and the carbon intensity of geothermal energy: A case study on the Hellisheiði plant |
title_sort |
environmental impacts and the carbon intensity of geothermal energy: a case study on the hellisheiði plant |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2019.105226 https://doaj.org/article/daa3d5df138847bc9acf2d420f414ac8 |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Environment International, Vol 133, Iss , Pp - (2019) |
op_relation |
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019318689 https://doaj.org/toc/0160-4120 0160-4120 doi:10.1016/j.envint.2019.105226 https://doaj.org/article/daa3d5df138847bc9acf2d420f414ac8 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2019.105226 |
container_title |
Environment International |
container_volume |
133 |
container_start_page |
105226 |
_version_ |
1766042287272361984 |