Environmental Impacts of Power Plants and Energy Conversion Systems

Life cycle assessments (LCAs) of power plants and energy conversion systems currently incorporate more granular spatial and temporal information, aimed at increasing the accuracy of inventories and the results. The power grid comprises highly diverse generation power generation technologies from radioactive nuclear to clean renewables and polluting fossil fuels which leads to electricity mixes. These differences among technologies highly influence the LCA results, hence the need to better characterize the spatial and temporal characteristics for accuracy. This study presents the environmental impacts of power generation technologies based on life cycle assessments (LCAs). The assessments cover impacts from extraction, processing and transportation of fuels, construction of power plants, and power generation. Life cycle assessment (LCA) to power generation technologies is very useful as the world seeks ways to meet growing electricity demand with less health and environmental impacts. LCA is an evolving methodology with several barriers and challenges but has helped in improving the understanding of the lifecycle energy, greenhouse gas emissions, air pollutant emissions, and water-use implications to power generation. The application of LCA tools facilitates an analytically thorough and environmentally holistic approach in assessment and comparison of power generation technologies. Most LCAs show that the best power plants are hydropower, both run-of-river and with reservoir, nuclear energy, and wind power. Fuel combustion directly leads to emissions and potential environmental harm. The cradle-to-grave approach considers all steps between material and fuel extraction from the environment until they are returned to the environment.