IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v115y2018icp371-381.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life cycle analysis of geothermal energy for power and transportation: A stochastic approach

Author

Listed:
  • Hanbury, O.
  • Vasquez, V.R.

Abstract

Increasing awareness of environmental issues surrounding power generation and transportation has increased interest in renewable energy sources such as geothermal. Renewable energy extraction is not without environmental cost, however; drilling operations and construction of the facilities required for utilization can be resource intensive. Complete life cycle analysis (LCA) allows for impact comparison between competing methods of power generation. The results are modular, allowing for use in other product life cycles. One such life cycle is that of the transportation vehicle. An analysis of vehicle life cycles involving geothermal energy is performed employing the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation (GREET) model. Geothermal power has large variations between plants owing to differences in the hydrothermal reservoir chemistry and thermodynamic conditions. Due to these variations, a stochastic approach was used to determine the amount of variation that is likely to be seen using this energy source. The results show geothermal power to have low environmental impact relative to other methods of energy production for use in transportation.

Suggested Citation

  • Hanbury, O. & Vasquez, V.R., 2018. "Life cycle analysis of geothermal energy for power and transportation: A stochastic approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 371-381.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:115:y:2018:i:c:p:371-381
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2017.08.053
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096014811730811X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2017.08.053?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. Gregory A. Norris, 2002. "Life Cycle Emission Distributions Within the Economy: Implications for Life Cycle Impact Assessment," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(5), pages 919-930, October.
    2. Buonocore, Elvira & Vanoli, Laura & Carotenuto, Alberto & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2015. "Integrating life cycle assessment and emergy synthesis for the evaluation of a dry steam geothermal power plant in Italy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 476-487.
    3. Bayer, Peter & Rybach, Ladislaus & Blum, Philipp & Brauchler, Ralf, 2013. "Review on life cycle environmental effects of geothermal power generation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 446-463.
    4. Frick, Stephanie & Kaltschmitt, Martin & Schröder, Gerd, 2010. "Life cycle assessment of geothermal binary power plants using enhanced low-temperature reservoirs," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 2281-2294.
    5. DiPippo, Ronald, 1991. "Geothermal energy Electricity generation and environmental impact," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 19(8), pages 798-807, October.
    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. Sebestyén, Viktor, 2021. "Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews: Environmental impact networks of renewable energy power plants," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    2. Anderson, Austin & Rezaie, Behnaz, 2019. "Geothermal technology: Trends and potential role in a sustainable future," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C), pages 18-34.
    3. Pan, Shu-Yuan & Gao, Mengyao & Shah, Kinjal J. & Zheng, Jianming & Pei, Si-Lu & Chiang, Pen-Chi, 2019. "Establishment of enhanced geothermal energy utilization plans: Barriers and strategies," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 19-32.
    4. Soltani, M. & Moradi Kashkooli, Farshad & Souri, Mohammad & Rafiei, Behnam & Jabarifar, Mohammad & Gharali, Kobra & Nathwani, Jatin S., 2021. "Environmental, economic, and social impacts of geothermal energy systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    5. Ibrahim Mosly & Anas A. Makki, 2018. "Current Status and Willingness to Adopt Renewable Energy Technologies in Saudi Arabia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, November.
    6. Sharma, P. & Al Saedi, A.Q. & Kabir, C.S., 2020. "Geothermal energy extraction with wellbore heat exchanger: Analytical model and parameter evaluation to optimize heat recovery," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 1-8.
    7. Maria Milousi & Athanasios Pappas & Andreas P. Vouros & Giouli Mihalakakou & Manolis Souliotis & Spiros Papaefthimiou, 2022. "Evaluating the Technical and Environmental Capabilities of Geothermal Systems through Life Cycle Assessment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-30, August.
    8. Akbari Kordlar, M. & Mahmoudi, S.M.S. & Talati, F. & Yari, M. & Mosaffa, A.H., 2019. "A new flexible geothermal based cogeneration system producing power and refrigeration, part two: The influence of ambient temperature," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 875-887.
    9. Carlos Lorente Rubio & Jorge Luis García-Alcaraz & Juan Carlos Sáenz-Diez Muro & Eduardo Martínez-Cámara & Agostino Bruzzone & Julio Blanco-Fernández, 2022. "Environmental Impact Comparison of Geothermal Alternatives for Conventional Boiler Replacement," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-15, November.
    10. Yilmaz, Ceyhun & Koyuncu, Ismail, 2021. "Thermoeconomic modeling and artificial neural network optimization of Afyon geothermal power plant," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 1166-1181.
    11. Cartelle Barros, Juan José & Lara Coira, Manuel & de la Cruz López, María Pilar & del Caño Gochi, Alfredo & Soares, Isabel, 2020. "Probabilistic multicriteria environmental assessment of power plants: A global approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).

    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. Gkousis, Spiros & Welkenhuysen, Kris & Compernolle, Tine, 2022. "Deep geothermal energy extraction, a review on environmental hotspots with focus on geo-technical site conditions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    2. Menberg, Kathrin & Heberle, Florian & Bott, Christoph & Brüggemann, Dieter & Bayer, Peter, 2021. "Environmental performance of a geothermal power plant using a hydrothermal resource in the Southern German Molasse Basin," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 20-31.
    3. Anderson, Austin & Rezaie, Behnaz, 2019. "Geothermal technology: Trends and potential role in a sustainable future," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C), pages 18-34.
    4. Soltani, M. & Moradi Kashkooli, Farshad & Souri, Mohammad & Rafiei, Behnam & Jabarifar, Mohammad & Gharali, Kobra & Nathwani, Jatin S., 2021. "Environmental, economic, and social impacts of geothermal energy systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    5. Lorenzo Tosti & Nicola Ferrara & Riccardo Basosi & Maria Laura Parisi, 2020. "Complete Data Inventory of a Geothermal Power Plant for Robust Cradle-to-Grave Life Cycle Assessment Results," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, June.
    6. Liu, Wen & Ramirez, Andrea, 2017. "State of the art review of the environmental assessment and risks of underground geo-energy resources exploitation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 628-644.
    7. Maria Milousi & Athanasios Pappas & Andreas P. Vouros & Giouli Mihalakakou & Manolis Souliotis & Spiros Papaefthimiou, 2022. "Evaluating the Technical and Environmental Capabilities of Geothermal Systems through Life Cycle Assessment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-30, August.
    8. Riccardo Basosi & Roberto Bonciani & Dario Frosali & Giampaolo Manfrida & Maria Laura Parisi & Franco Sansone, 2020. "Life Cycle Analysis of a Geothermal Power Plant: Comparison of the Environmental Performance with Other Renewable Energy Systems," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-29, April.
    9. Grubert, E. & Zacarias, M., 2022. "Paradigm shifts for environmental assessment of decarbonizing energy systems: Emerging dominance of embodied impacts and design-oriented decision support needs," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    10. Gerber, Léda & Maréchal, François, 2012. "Environomic optimal configurations of geothermal energy conversion systems: Application to the future construction of Enhanced Geothermal Systems in Switzerland," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 908-923.
    11. Sigurjónsson, Hafþór Ægir & Cook, David & Davíðsdóttir, Brynhildur & Bogason, Sigurður G., 2021. "A life-cycle analysis of deep enhanced geothermal systems – The case studies of Reykjanes, Iceland and Vendenheim, France," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 1076-1086.
    12. Marta Ros Karlsdottir & Jukka Heinonen & Halldor Palsson & Olafur Petur Palsson, 2020. "High-Temperature Geothermal Utilization in the Context of European Energy Policy—Implications and Limitations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-27, June.
    13. Alessio Ilari & Daniele Duca & Kofi Armah Boakye-Yiadom & Thomas Gasperini & Giuseppe Toscano, 2022. "Carbon Footprint and Feedstock Quality of a Real Biomass Power Plant Fed with Forestry and Agricultural Residues," Resources, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-20, January.
    14. Campos-Guzmán, Verónica & García-Cáscales, M. Socorro & Espinosa, Nieves & Urbina, Antonio, 2019. "Life Cycle Analysis with Multi-Criteria Decision Making: A review of approaches for the sustainability evaluation of renewable energy technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 343-366.
    15. Nian, Yong-Le & Cheng, Wen-Long, 2018. "Insights into geothermal utilization of abandoned oil and gas wells," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 44-60.
    16. Dawo, Fabian & Fleischmann, Jonas & Kaufmann, Florian & Schifflechner, Christopher & Eyerer, Sebastian & Wieland, Christoph & Spliethoff, Hartmut, 2021. "R1224yd(Z), R1233zd(E) and R1336mzz(Z) as replacements for R245fa: Experimental performance, interaction with lubricants and environmental impact," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    17. Asdrubali, Francesco & Baldinelli, Giorgio & D’Alessandro, Francesco & Scrucca, Flavio, 2015. "Life cycle assessment of electricity production from renewable energies: Review and results harmonization," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1113-1122.
    18. Lorenzo Bruscoli & Daniele Fiaschi & Giampaolo Manfrida & Duccio Tempesti, 2015. "Improving the Environmental Sustainability of Flash Geothermal Power Plants—A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(11), pages 1-22, November.
    19. Moya, Diego & Aldás, Clay & Kaparaju, Prasad, 2018. "Geothermal energy: Power plant technology and direct heat applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 889-901.
    20. Buonocore, Elvira & Vanoli, Laura & Carotenuto, Alberto & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2015. "Integrating life cycle assessment and emergy synthesis for the evaluation of a dry steam geothermal power plant in Italy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 476-487.

    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:renene:v:115:y:2018:i:c:p:371-381. 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.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    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.