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Environmental impact profile of electricity generation in Chile: A baseline study over two decades

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  • Vega-Coloma, Mabel
  • Zaror, Claudio A.

Abstract

Chile is one of the world largest copper producing countries, housing significant mineral reserves, and accounting for over 30% of national electricity consumption. Currently, the total installed electricity generation capacity amounts to over 20 GW and is expected to double within the next two decades. Since electricity generation is a well-known source of environmental impacts throughout its lifecycle, there is a permanent need to evaluate potential environmental burdens of alternative courses of action. Unfortunately, systematic information on the environmental performance of current electricity generation in the country is lacking. Therefore, this paper reports the potential environmental burdens of the Chilean electricity generation system over the last two decades, to account for temporal effects and serve as a baseline to which compare different strategies, following a cradle-to-gate approach based on ISO 14.040–44:2006 standards. The system limits included fuels extraction and transportation processes, and construction materials, as well as electricity generation, considering as a functional unit 1 kWh.

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  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:94:y:2018:i:c:p:154-167
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2018.05.058
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. 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).
    3. Vanesa Rodríguez-Merchan & Claudia Ulloa-Tesser & Yannay Casas-Ledón, 2019. "Evaluation of the Water–Energy–Land Nexus (WELN) Using Exergy-Based Indicators: The Chilean Electricity System Case," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-20, December.

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