IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v87y2015icp334-346.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability deterioration of electricity generation in Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Moreira, João M.L.
  • Cesaretti, Marcos A.
  • Carajilescov, Pedro
  • Maiorino, José R.

Abstract

The power generation sector in Brazil is usually considered to have a high level of sustainability because of its large share of hydropower, about 70%. The annual growth rate of the Brazilian power sector is about 4%/year with a growing capacity addition of fossil fuels, which indicates a deterioration regarding sustainability. This work utilizes multi-criteria analysis coupled with composite indicators to infer the sustainability evolution of the power generation sector in Brazil from 2010 to 2016. Seven criteria were considered: emission of greenhouse gases, immobilized area, use of fuel resources, water use, morbidity, energy generation reliability and energy efficiency. The assessment evidenced wind power and nuclear power plants as the most sustainable options for capacity addition after hydropower. Co-generation and combined cycle technologies should be encouraged in natural gas and biomass projects in order to reduce impacts on sustainability. The assessment is interdisciplinary and admits tradeoffs amongst different impacts and benefits, for instance, environmental impacts versus energy generation reliability. It is proposed that sustainability assessments be incorporated to the formal process of decision making in order to reduce opposition and facilitate obtaining consensus among different stakeholders.

Suggested Citation

  • Moreira, João M.L. & Cesaretti, Marcos A. & Carajilescov, Pedro & Maiorino, José R., 2015. "Sustainability deterioration of electricity generation in Brazil," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 334-346.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:87:y:2015:i:c:p:334-346
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2015.09.021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421515301075
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.09.021?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Trevor A. Sheldon & Peter C. Smith, 2000. "Equity in the allocation of health care resources," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(7), pages 571-574, October.
    2. Chatzimouratidis, Athanasios I. & Pilavachi, Petros A., 2009. "Sensitivity analysis of technological, economic and sustainability evaluation of power plants using the analytic hierarchy process," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 788-798, March.
    3. Rashad, S. M. & Hammad, F. H., 2000. "Nuclear power and the environment: comparative assessment of environmental and health impacts of electricity-generating systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 65(1-4), pages 211-229, April.
    4. George Davey Smith & Stephen Frankel & Shah Ebrahim, 2000. "Rationing for health equity: is it necessary?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(7), pages 575-579, October.
    5. Adamantiades, A. & Kessides, I., 2009. "Nuclear power for sustainable development: Current status and future prospects," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5149-5166, December.
    6. Fthenakis, Vasilis & Kim, Hyung Chul, 2010. "Life-cycle uses of water in U.S. electricity generation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(7), pages 2039-2048, September.
    7. Gagnon, Luc & Belanger, Camille & Uchiyama, Yohji, 2002. "Life-cycle assessment of electricity generation options: The status of research in year 2001," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(14), pages 1267-1278, November.
    8. Gilbert E. Metcalf, 2006. "Energy Conservation in the United States: Understanding its Role in Climate Policy," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0609, Department of Economics, Tufts University.
    9. Rovere, Emilio Lebre La & Soares, Jeferson Borghetti & Oliveira, Luciano Basto & Lauria, Tatiana, 2010. "Sustainable expansion of electricity sector: Sustainability indicators as an instrument to support decision making," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 422-429, January.
    10. Kenny, R. & Law, C. & Pearce, J.M., 2010. "Towards real energy economics: Energy policy driven by life-cycle carbon emission," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1969-1978, April.
    11. Caetano de Souza, Antonio Carlos, 2008. "Assessment and statistics of Brazilian hydroelectric power plants: Dam areas versus installed and firm power," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 12(7), pages 1843-1863, September.
    12. Lee, Kun-Mo & Lee, Sang-Yong & Hur, Tak, 2004. "Life cycle inventory analysis for electricity in Korea," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 87-101.
    13. V. Kerry Smith & Donald H. Taylor & Frank A. Sloan & F. Reed Johnson & William H. Desvousges, 2001. "Do Smokers Respond To Health Shocks?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(4), pages 675-687, November.
    14. Buytaert, V. & Muys, B. & Devriendt, N. & Pelkmans, L. & Kretzschmar, J.G. & Samson, R., 2011. "Towards integrated sustainability assessment for energetic use of biomass: A state of the art evaluation of assessment tools," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(8), pages 3918-3933.
    15. Cardona, E. & Piacentino, A., 2005. "Cogeneration: a regulatory framework toward growth," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(16), pages 2100-2111, November.
    16. Bebbington, Jan & Brown, Judy & Frame, Bob, 2007. "Accounting technologies and sustainability assessment models," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 224-236, March.
    17. Fthenakis, Vasilis & Kim, Hyung Chul, 2009. "Land use and electricity generation: A life-cycle analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(6-7), pages 1465-1474, August.
    18. Weisser, Daniel, 2007. "A guide to life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from electric supply technologies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1543-1559.
    19. Grisi, Edson F. & Yusta, Jose M. & Dufo-López, Rodolfo, 2012. "Opportunity costs for bioelectricity sales in Brazilian sucro-energetic industries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 860-867.
    20. Michiel C. Zijp & Reinout Heijungs & Ester Van der Voet & Dik Van de Meent & Mark A. J. Huijbregts & Anne Hollander & Leo Posthuma, 2015. "An Identification Key for Selecting Methods for Sustainability Assessments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-23, March.
    21. Løken, Espen, 2007. "Use of multicriteria decision analysis methods for energy planning problems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 11(7), pages 1584-1595, September.
    22. Evans, Annette & Strezov, Vladimir & Evans, Tim J., 2009. "Assessment of sustainability indicators for renewable energy technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 1082-1088, June.
    23. Chatzimouratidis, Athanasios I. & Pilavachi, Petros A., 2009. "Technological, economic and sustainability evaluation of power plants using the Analytic Hierarchy Process," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 778-787, March.
    24. del Río, Pablo & Burguillo, Mercedes, 2008. "Assessing the impact of renewable energy deployment on local sustainability: Towards a theoretical framework," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 12(5), pages 1325-1344, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lenhard, L.G. & Andersen, S.M. & Coimbra-Araújo, C.H., 2018. "Energy-Environmental Implications Of Shale Gas Exploration In Paraná Hydrological Basin, Brazil," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 56-69.
    2. Grottera, Carolina & Barbier, Carine & Sanches-Pereira, Alessandro & Abreu, Mariana Weiss de & Uchôa, Christiane & Tudeschini, Luís Gustavo & Cayla, Jean-Michel & Nadaud, Franck & Pereira Jr, Amaro Ol, 2018. "Linking electricity consumption of home appliances and standard of living: A comparison between Brazilian and French households," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 877-888.
    3. Indre Siksnelyte & Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas & Dalia Streimikiene & Deepak Sharma, 2018. "An Overview of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods in Dealing with Sustainable Energy Development Issues," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-21, October.
    4. Aquila, Giancarlo & Pamplona, Edson de Oliveira & Queiroz, Anderson Rodrigo de & Rotela Junior, Paulo & Fonseca, Marcelo Nunes, 2017. "An overview of incentive policies for the expansion of renewable energy generation in electricity power systems and the Brazilian experience," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1090-1098.
    5. Herrera, Milton M. & Dyner, Isaac & Cosenz, Federico, 2019. "Assessing the effect of transmission constraints on wind power expansion in northeast Brazil," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1-1.
    6. Fossati, Michele & Scalco, Veridiana Atanasio & Linczuk, Vinícius Cesar Cadena & Lamberts, Roberto, 2016. "Building energy efficiency: An overview of the Brazilian residential labeling scheme," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 1216-1231.
    7. Carlos Roberto de Sousa Costa & Paula Ferreira, 2023. "A Review on the Internalization of Externalities in Electricity Generation Expansion Planning," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-19, February.
    8. Rego, Erik Eduardo & de Oliveira Ribeiro, Celma & do Valle Costa, Oswaldo Luiz & Ho, Linda Lee, 2017. "Thermoelectric dispatch: From utopian planning to reality," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 266-277.
    9. Villareal, Maria José Charfuelan & Moreira, João Manoel Losada, 2016. "Household consumption of electricity in Brazil between 1985 and 2013," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 251-259.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Strantzali, Eleni & Aravossis, Konstantinos, 2016. "Decision making in renewable energy investments: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 885-898.
    2. Hong, Sanghyun & Bradshaw, Corey J.A. & Brook, Barry W., 2013. "Evaluating options for the future energy mix of Japan after the Fukushima nuclear crisis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 418-424.
    3. Akber, Muhammad Zeshan & Thaheem, Muhammad Jamaluddin & Arshad, Husnain, 2017. "Life cycle sustainability assessment of electricity generation in Pakistan: Policy regime for a sustainable energy mix," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 111-126.
    4. Maxim, Alexandru, 2014. "Sustainability assessment of electricity generation technologies using weighted multi-criteria decision analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 284-297.
    5. Hottenroth, H. & Sutardhio, C. & Weidlich, A. & Tietze, I. & Simon, S. & Hauser, W. & Naegler, T. & Becker, L. & Buchgeister, J. & Junne, T. & Lehr, U. & Scheel, O. & Schmidt-Scheele, R. & Ulrich, P. , 2022. "Beyond climate change. Multi-attribute decision making for a sustainability assessment of energy system transformation pathways," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    6. Troldborg, Mads & Heslop, Simon & Hough, Rupert L., 2014. "Assessing the sustainability of renewable energy technologies using multi-criteria analysis: Suitability of approach for national-scale assessments and associated uncertainties," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1173-1184.
    7. Buchmayr, A. & Verhofstadt, E. & Van Ootegem, L. & Sanjuan Delmás, D. & Thomassen, G. & Dewulf, J., 2021. "The path to sustainable energy supply systems: Proposal of an integrative sustainability assessment framework," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    8. Hong, Sanghyun & Bradshaw, Corey J.A. & Brook, Barry W., 2014. "Nuclear power can reduce emissions and maintain a strong economy: Rating Australia’s optimal future electricity-generation mix by technologies and policies," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 712-725.
    9. Alkan, Ömer & Albayrak, Özlem Karadağ, 2020. "Ranking of renewable energy sources for regions in Turkey by fuzzy entropy based fuzzy COPRAS and fuzzy MULTIMOORA," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 712-726.
    10. Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2008. "Valuing the greenhouse gas emissions from nuclear power: A critical survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 2940-2953, August.
    11. Milad Kolagar & Seyed Mohammad Hassan Hosseini & Ramin Felegari & Parviz Fattahi, 2020. "Policy-making for renewable energy sources in search of sustainable development: a hybrid DEA-FBWM approach," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 485-509, December.
    12. Wee, Hui-Ming & Yang, Wen-Hsiung & Chou, Chao-Wu & Padilan, Marivic V., 2012. "Renewable energy supply chains, performance, application barriers, and strategies for further development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(8), pages 5451-5465.
    13. Streimikiene, Dalia & Balezentis, Tomas & Krisciukaitienė, Irena & Balezentis, Alvydas, 2012. "Prioritizing sustainable electricity production technologies: MCDM approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 3302-3311.
    14. Hong, Sanghyun & Bradshaw, Corey J.A. & Brook, Barry W., 2013. "Evaluating options for sustainable energy mixes in South Korea using scenario analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 237-244.
    15. Kurka, Thomas & Blackwood, David, 2013. "Participatory selection of sustainability criteria and indicators for bioenergy developments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 92-102.
    16. Liu, Gang, 2014. "Development of a general sustainability indicator for renewable energy systems: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 611-621.
    17. Joshua M. Pearce, 2012. "Limitations of Nuclear Power as a Sustainable Energy Source," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(6), pages 1-15, June.
    18. Emblemsvåg, Jan, 2022. "Wind energy is not sustainable when balanced by fossil energy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    19. Turconi, Roberto & Boldrin, Alessio & Astrup, Thomas, 2013. "Life cycle assessment (LCA) of electricity generation technologies: Overview, comparability and limitations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 555-565.
    20. Saraswat, S.K. & Digalwar, Abhijeet K., 2021. "Empirical investigation and validation of sustainability indicators for the assessment of energy sources in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:87:y:2015:i:c:p:334-346. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.