IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v134y2020ics1364032120306614.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life cycle methods to analyze the environmental sustainability of electricity generation in Ecuador: Is decarbonization the right path?

Author

Listed:
  • Ramirez, A.D.
  • Boero, A.
  • Rivela, B.
  • Melendres, A.M.
  • Espinoza, S.
  • Salas, D.A.

Abstract

Electricity is the main energy carrier in today's society and plays a vital role in a sustainable future. Based on the Ecuadorian experience, the goal of this study is to analyze the environmental performance of current and forecasted scenarios of electricity generation and supply using life cycle methods, as a basis to discuss the appropriateness of current policy strategies towards a decarbonized future. The environmental impacts of the electricity mix are dominated by the emissions generated by fossil fuels burning during electricity generation. Results show that increasing the share of hydroelectricity decreases the environmental impacts per kWh considerably, but the environmental performance of net electricity generated in the country is also shaped by the growing energy demand for electricity. The global warming potential of net electricity generation is from 12 to 20 times higher by 2050 over 2016 levels for all scenarios. National policies on energy sustainability will not mitigate the Ecuadorian electricity environmental impacts, due to the growing demand for electricity. Moreover, there are risks to the energy security of Ecuador in the future, as fossil resources scarcity is expected, and climate change uncertainties may pose challenges to the future harnessing of hydropower. Targeting GHG reductions must address the challenge of demand reduction. Furthermore, policy focused on climate change could potentially lead to adverse consequences in other areas: decarbonization alone does not tell the whole story of the requirements for a transition to sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Ramirez, A.D. & Boero, A. & Rivela, B. & Melendres, A.M. & Espinoza, S. & Salas, D.A., 2020. "Life cycle methods to analyze the environmental sustainability of electricity generation in Ecuador: Is decarbonization the right path?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:134:y:2020:i:c:s1364032120306614
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2020.110373
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032120306614
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2020.110373?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. Chang, Yuan & Huang, Runze & Ries, Robert J. & Masanet, Eric, 2015. "Life-cycle comparison of greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption for coal and shale gas fired power generation in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 335-343.
    2. Amponsah, Nana Yaw & Troldborg, Mads & Kington, Bethany & Aalders, Inge & Hough, Rupert Lloyd, 2014. "Greenhouse gas emissions from renewable energy sources: A review of lifecycle considerations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 461-475.
    3. Lele, Sharad M. & Subramanian, D.K., 1988. "A hydro-wood net-energy approach to hydro project design," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 367-381.
    4. Turconi, R. & O’Dwyer, C. & Flynn, D. & Astrup, T., 2014. "Emissions from cycling of thermal power plants in electricity systems with high penetration of wind power: Life cycle assessment for Ireland," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 1-8.
    5. Ponce-Jara, M.A. & Castro, M. & Pelaez-Samaniego, M.R. & Espinoza-Abad, J.L. & Ruiz, E., 2018. "Electricity sector in Ecuador: An overview of the 2007–2017 decade," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 513-522.
    6. Santoyo-Castelazo, E. & Gujba, H. & Azapagic, A., 2011. "Life cycle assessment of electricity generation in Mexico," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 1488-1499.
    7. Castro Verdezoto, Pedro L. & Vidoza, Jorge A. & Gallo, Waldyr L.R., 2019. "Analysis and projection of energy consumption in Ecuador: Energy efficiency policies in the transportation sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    8. Fortier, Marie-Odile P. & Teron, Lemir & Reames, Tony G. & Munardy, Dynta Trishana & Sullivan, Breck M., 2019. "Introduction to evaluating energy justice across the life cycle: A social life cycle assessment approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 236(C), pages 211-219.
    9. Heun, Matthew Kuperus & Brockway, Paul E., 2019. "Meeting 2030 primary energy and economic growth goals: Mission impossible?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C), pages 1-1.
    10. Jorge, Raquel S. & Hertwich, Edgar G., 2013. "Environmental evaluation of power transmission in Norway," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 513-520.
    11. Treyer, Karin & Bauer, Christian, 2016. "The environmental footprint of UAE׳s electricity sector: Combining life cycle assessment and scenario modeling," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1234-1247.
    12. Di Silvestre, Maria Luisa & Favuzza, Salvatore & Riva Sanseverino, Eleonora & Zizzo, Gaetano, 2018. "How Decarbonization, Digitalization and Decentralization are changing key power infrastructures," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 483-498.
    13. Pablo E. Carvajal & Francis G. N. Li, 2019. "Challenges for hydropower-based nationally determined contributions: a case study for Ecuador," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(8), pages 974-987, September.
    14. García-Gusano, Diego & Garraín, Daniel & Dufour, Javier, 2017. "Prospective life cycle assessment of the Spanish electricity production," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 21-34.
    15. Garcia, Rita & Marques, Pedro & Freire, Fausto, 2014. "Life-cycle assessment of electricity in Portugal," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 563-572.
    16. Varun & Bhat, I.K. & Prakash, Ravi, 2009. "LCA of renewable energy for electricity generation systems--A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 1067-1073, June.
    17. 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.
    18. Lamnatou, Chr. & Chemisana, D., 2017. "Concentrating solar systems: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and environmental issues," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 916-932.
    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. Gerbinet, Saïcha & Belboom, Sandra & Léonard, Angélique, 2014. "Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of photovoltaic panels: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 747-753.
    21. Islam, Hamidul & Jollands, Margaret & Setunge, Sujeeva, 2015. "Life cycle assessment and life cycle cost implication of residential buildings—A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 129-140.
    22. Espinoza, Vicente Sebastian & Fontalvo, Javier & Martí-Herrero, Jaime & Ramírez, Paola & Capellán-Pérez, Iñigo, 2019. "Future oil extraction in Ecuador using a Hubbert approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 520-534.
    23. Danilo Arcentales & Carla Silva, 2019. "Exploring the Introduction of Plug-In Hybrid Flex-Fuel Vehicles in Ecuador," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-14, June.
    24. Portugal-Pereira, Joana & Köberle, Alexandre C. & Soria, Rafael & Lucena, André F.P. & Szklo, Alexandre & Schaeffer, Roberto, 2016. "Overlooked impacts of electricity expansion optimisation modelling: The life cycle side of the story," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(P2), pages 1424-1435.
    25. Singlitico, Alessandro & Goggins, Jamie & Monaghan, Rory F.D., 2019. "The role of life cycle assessment in the sustainable transition to a decarbonised gas network through green gas production," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 16-28.
    26. Sharifzadeh, Mahdi & Hien, Raymond Khoo Teck & Shah, Nilay, 2019. "China’s roadmap to low-carbon electricity and water: Disentangling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from electricity-water nexus via renewable wind and solar power generation, and carbon capture and sto," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C), pages 31-42.
    27. Messagie, Maarten & Mertens, Jan & Oliveira, Luis & Rangaraju, Surendraprabu & Sanfelix, Javier & Coosemans, Thierry & Van Mierlo, Joeri & Macharis, Cathy, 2014. "The hourly life cycle carbon footprint of electricity generation in Belgium, bringing a temporal resolution in life cycle assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 469-476.
    28. Briones Hidrovo, Andrei & Uche, Javier & Martínez-Gracia, Amaya, 2017. "Accounting for GHG net reservoir emissions of hydropower in Ecuador," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 209-221.
    29. Murillo Vetroni Barros & Cassiano Moro Piekarski & Antonio Carlos De Francisco, 2018. "Carbon Footprint of Electricity Generation in Brazil: An Analysis of the 2016–2026 Period," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-14, June.
    30. Tan, Reginald B.H. & Wijaya, David & Khoo, Hsien H., 2010. "LCI (Life cycle inventory) analysis of fuels and electricity generation in Singapore," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 4910-4916.
    31. Ramirez, Angel D. & Rivela, Beatriz & Boero, Andrea & Melendres, Ana M., 2019. "Lights and shadows of the environmental impacts of fossil-based electricity generation technologies: A contribution based on the Ecuadorian experience," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 467-477.
    32. Millo, Federico & Rolando, Luciano & Fuso, Rocco & Mallamo, Fabio, 2014. "Real CO2 emissions benefits and end user’s operating costs of a plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 563-571.
    33. Vázquez-Rowe, Ian & Reyna, Janet L. & García-Torres, Samy & Kahhat, Ramzy, 2015. "Is climate change-centrism an optimal policy making strategy to set national electricity mixes?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 108-116.
    34. Turconi, Roberto & Tonini, Davide & Nielsen, Christian F.B. & Simonsen, Christian G. & Astrup, Thomas, 2014. "Environmental impacts of future low-carbon electricity systems: Detailed life cycle assessment of a Danish case study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 66-73.
    35. Ivan Merino & Israel Herrera & Hugo Valdés, 2019. "Environmental Assessment of Energy Scenarios for a Low-Carbon Electrical Network in Chile," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-16, September.
    36. David Griggs & Mark Stafford-Smith & Owen Gaffney & Johan Rockström & Marcus C. Öhman & Priya Shyamsundar & Will Steffen & Gisbert Glaser & Norichika Kanie & Ian Noble, 2013. "Sustainable development goals for people and planet," Nature, Nature, vol. 495(7441), pages 305-307, March.
    37. Vega-Coloma, Mabel & Zaror, Claudio A., 2018. "Environmental impact profile of electricity generation in Chile: A baseline study over two decades," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 154-167.
    38. Adamczyk, Janusz & Dzikuć, Maciej, 2014. "The analysis of suppositions included in the Polish Energetic Policy using the LCA technique—Poland case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 42-50.
    39. Perčić, Maja & Ančić, Ivica & Vladimir, Nikola, 2020. "Life-cycle cost assessments of different power system configurations to reduce the carbon footprint in the Croatian short-sea shipping sector," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    40. 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.
    41. Cevallos-Sierra, Jaime & Ramos-Martin, Jesús, 2018. "Spatial assessment of the potential of renewable energy: The case of Ecuador," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 1154-1165.
    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. Danilo Arcentales-Bastidas & Carla Silva & Angel D. Ramirez, 2022. "The Environmental Profile of Ethanol Derived from Sugarcane in Ecuador: A Life Cycle Assessment Including the Effect of Cogeneration of Electricity in a Sugar Industrial Complex," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-24, July.
    2. Christian R. Parra & Angel D. Ramirez & Luis Manuel Navas-Gracia & David Gonzales & Adriana Correa-Guimaraes, 2023. "Prospects for Bioenergy Development Potential from Dedicated Energy Crops in Ecuador: An Agroecological Zoning Study," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-25, January.
    3. Mayra L. Pazmiño & Angel D. Ramirez, 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment as a Methodological Framework for the Evaluation of the Environmental Sustainability of Pig and Pork Production in Ecuador," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, October.
    4. Janeth Carolina Godoy & Daniel Villamar & Rafael Soria & César Vaca & Thomas Hamacher & Freddy Ordóñez, 2021. "Preparing the Ecuador’s Power Sector to Enable a Large-Scale Electric Land Transport," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-22, September.
    5. Kheiralipour, Kamran & Khoobbakht, Mohammad & Karimi, Mahmoud, 2024. "Effect of biodiesel on environmental impacts of diesel mechanical power generation by life cycle assessment," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 289(C).
    6. Icaza, Daniel & Borge-Diez, David & Galindo, Santiago Pulla, 2022. "Analysis and proposal of energy planning and renewable energy plans in South America: Case study of Ecuador," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 314-342.
    7. Chiriboga, Gonzalo & Chamba, Rommel & Garcia, Andrés & Heredia-Fonseca, Roberto & Montero- Calderón, Carolina & Carvajal C, Ghem, 2023. "Useful energy is a meaningful approach to building the decarbonization: A case of study of the Ecuadorian transport sector," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 76-87.
    8. Andrea J. Boero & Kevin Kardux & Marina Kovaleva & Daniel A. Salas & Jacco Mooijer & Syed Mashruk & Michael Townsend & Kevin Rouwenhorst & Agustin Valera-Medina & Angel D. Ramirez, 2021. "Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Ammonia-Based Electricity," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-20, October.
    9. Icaza-Alvarez, Daniel & Jurado, Francisco & Tostado-Véliz, Marcos & Arevalo, Paúl, 2022. "Decarbonization of the Galapagos Islands. Proposal to transform the energy system into 100% renewable by 2050," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 199-220.

    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. Ramirez, Angel D. & Rivela, Beatriz & Boero, Andrea & Melendres, Ana M., 2019. "Lights and shadows of the environmental impacts of fossil-based electricity generation technologies: A contribution based on the Ecuadorian experience," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 467-477.
    2. Mahmud, M.A. Parvez & Huda, Nazmul & Farjana, Shahjadi Hisan & Lang, Candace, 2020. "Life-cycle impact assessment of renewable electricity generation systems in the United States," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 1028-1045.
    3. Mahmud, M.A. Parvez & Farjana, Shahjadi Hisan, 2022. "Comparative life cycle environmental impact assessment of renewable electricity generation systems: A practical approach towards Europe, North America and Oceania," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 1106-1120.
    4. Zhang, Xiaoyue & Huang, Guohe & Liu, Lirong & Li, Kailong, 2022. "Development of a stochastic multistage lifecycle programming model for electric power system planning – A case study for the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    5. Orfanos, Neoptolemos & Mitzelos, Dimitris & Sagani, Angeliki & Dedoussis, Vassilis, 2019. "Life-cycle environmental performance assessment of electricity generation and transmission systems in Greece," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1447-1462.
    6. Busola D. Akintayo & Oluwafemi E. Ige & Olubayo M. Babatunde & Oludolapo A. Olanrewaju, 2023. "Evaluation and Prioritization of Power-Generating Systems Using a Life Cycle Assessment and a Multicriteria Decision-Making Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-18, September.
    7. Hosseini, Seyed Mohsen & Kanagaraj, N. & Sadeghi, Shahrbanoo & Yousefi, Hossein, 2022. "Midpoint and endpoint impacts of electricity generation by renewable and nonrenewable technologies: A case study of Alberta, Canada," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 22-39.
    8. Besseau, Romain & Sacchi, Romain & Blanc, Isabelle & Pérez-López, Paula, 2019. "Past, present and future environmental footprint of the Danish wind turbine fleet with LCA_WIND_DK, an online interactive platform," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 274-288.
    9. Vega-Coloma, Mabel & Zaror, Claudio A., 2018. "Environmental impact profile of electricity generation in Chile: A baseline study over two decades," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 154-167.
    10. Markéta Šerešová & Jiří Štefanica & Monika Vitvarová & Kristina Zakuciová & Petr Wolf & Vladimír Kočí, 2020. "Life Cycle Performance of Various Energy Sources Used in the Czech Republic," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-17, November.
    11. Zerrin Günkaya & Alp Özdemir & Aysun Özkan & Müfide Banar, 2016. "Environmental Performance of Electricity Generation Based on Resources: A Life Cycle Assessment Case Study in Turkey," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-14, October.
    12. Zheng, Shuxian & Zhou, Xuanru & Tan, Zhanglu & Liu, Chan & Hu, Han & Yuan, Hui & Peng, Shengnan & Cai, Xiaomei, 2023. "Assessment of the global energy transition: Based on trade embodied energy analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    13. Gemechu, Eskinder & Kumar, Amit, 2022. "A review of how life cycle assessment has been used to assess the environmental impacts of hydropower energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    14. Ling-Chin, J. & Heidrich, O. & Roskilly, A.P., 2016. "Life cycle assessment (LCA) – from analysing methodology development to introducing an LCA framework for marine photovoltaic (PV) systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 352-378.
    15. Mendecka, Barbara & Tribioli, Laura & Cozzolino, Raffaello, 2020. "Life Cycle Assessment of a stand-alone solar-based polygeneration power plant for a commercial building in different climate zones," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 1132-1143.
    16. Danilo Arcentales-Bastidas & Carla Silva & Angel D. Ramirez, 2022. "The Environmental Profile of Ethanol Derived from Sugarcane in Ecuador: A Life Cycle Assessment Including the Effect of Cogeneration of Electricity in a Sugar Industrial Complex," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-24, July.
    17. Emblemsvåg, Jan, 2022. "Wind energy is not sustainable when balanced by fossil energy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    18. Dahlia Byles & Salman Mohagheghi, 2023. "Sustainable Power Grid Expansion: Life Cycle Assessment, Modeling Approaches, Challenges, and Opportunities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-25, May.
    19. Chengzhou Li & Ningling Wang & Hongyuan Zhang & Qingxin Liu & Youguo Chai & Xiaohu Shen & Zhiping Yang & Yongping Yang, 2019. "Environmental Impact Evaluation of Distributed Renewable Energy System Based on Life Cycle Assessment and Fuzzy Rough Sets," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-17, November.
    20. M. A. Parvez Mahmud & Nazmul Huda & Shahjadi Hisan Farjana & Candace Lang, 2018. "Environmental Impacts of Solar-Photovoltaic and Solar-Thermal Systems with Life-Cycle Assessment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-21, September.

    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:rensus:v:134:y:2020:i:c:s1364032120306614. 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/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    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.