Selection of the Most Sustainable Renewable Energy System for Bozcaada Island: Wind vs. Photovoltaic

Energy production without destroying the environment has been one of the most crucial issues for people living in today’s world. In order to analyze whole environmental and/or economic impacts of the energy production process, life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) are widely used. In...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2019-08, Vol.11 (15), p.4098
Main Authors: Oğuz, Elif, Şentürk, Ayşe Eylül
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acidification
Alternative energy sources
Climate change
Economic impact
Electric power generation
Emissions
Energy industry
Eutrophication
Global warming
Greenhouse effect
Greenhouse gases
Photovoltaics
Power plants
Solar power
Sustainability
Wind
Wind power
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Summary:Energy production without destroying the environment has been one of the most crucial issues for people living in today’s world. In order to analyze whole environmental and/or economic impacts of the energy production process, life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) are widely used. In this study, two distinct renewable energy systems are assessed. First, a land-based wind farm, which has been operating in Bozcaada Island since 2000, is compared to a proposed solar photovoltaic power plant in terms of Energy Pay-Back Time (EPBT) periods and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and life cycle cost. The energy production process including the recycling phase evaluated “from cradle to grave” using GaBi software for both cases. All scenarios are compared by considering different impact categories such as global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), and eutrophication potential (EP). Following this, levelized unit cost to produce 1 MWh electricity (LUCE) is calculated for both systems. This study revealed that LCA and LCCA are useful and practical tools that help to determine drawbacks and benefits of different renewable energy systems considering their long-term environmental and economic impacts. Our findings show that onshore wind farms have a number of benefits than proposed photovoltaic power plants in terms of environmental and cost aspects.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su11154098