Considering the Impacts of Metal Depletion on the European Electricity System

The transformation of the European electricity system could generate unintended environment-related trade-offs, e.g., between greenhouse gas emissions and metal depletion. The question thus emerges, how to shape policy packages considering climate change, but without neglecting other environmental a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energies (Basel) 2021-03, Vol.14 (6), p.1560
Main Authors: Xu, Lei, Wang, Zongfei, Yilmaz, Hasan Ümitcan, Poganietz, Witold-Roger, Ren, Hongtao, Guo, Ying
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alternative energy sources
Climate change
Climate policy
Decision making
Depletion
Electricity
Electricity generation
electricity system model
Emissions
Environmental changes
Environmental policy
Expenditures
Greenhouse effect
Greenhouse gases
Industrial plant emissions
LCA
Linear programming
metal depletion
multi-criteria analysis
Multiple criterion
Optimization
Power plants
Renewable resources
system expenditures
Tradeoffs
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Summary:The transformation of the European electricity system could generate unintended environment-related trade-offs, e.g., between greenhouse gas emissions and metal depletion. The question thus emerges, how to shape policy packages considering climate change, but without neglecting other environmental and resource-related impacts. In this context, this study analyzes the impacts of different settings of potential policy targets using a multi-criteria analysis in the frame of a coupled energy system and life cycle assessment model. The focus is on the interrelationship between climate change and metal depletion in the future European decarbonized electricity system in 2050, also taking into account total system expenditures of transforming the energy system. The study shows, firstly, that highly ambitious climate policy targets will not allow for any specific resource policy targets. Secondly, smoothing the trade-off is only possible to the extent of one of the policy targets, whereas, thirdly, the potential of recycling as a techno-economic option is limited.
ISSN:1996-1073
1996-1073
DOI:10.3390/en14061560