A comparative life cycle assessment of energy production sources

This book consists of a comparative cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) of three energy sources and their environmental impacts. The assessment was conducted following ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) standards (ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006) using the Ecoinvent database in the openLCA 1.10.3 software. The scope of the assessment defines specific stages in each energy system leaving out construction equipment installation and powerplant decommissioning stages for all three energy production technologies. One megawatt-hour (1 MWh) of electricity production is defined as the functional unit of this assessment since electricity generation is the primary function of all three energy systems. This assessment adopts the ReCiPe Hierarchist (H) version of impact assessment.