Life cycle assessment of electricity generation scenarios in Italy

Hindering global warming and achieving a more competitive, secure and sustainable energy sector are some of the most relevant goals of the 2030 Framework for climate and energy of the European Union. European countries have to identify and implement strategies for contributing to these ambitious goals. In this context, the authors carried out a scenario analysis on the Sicilian electricity mix in order to estimate the life cycle energy and environmental benefits of the increase of the use of renewable energy technologies for electricity production, and the potential contribution of Sicily in the achievement of the European energy and environmental targets. In detail, the authors identified two electricity generation scenarios for 2030 starting from the Sicilian electricity mix in 2014, performed assumptions on the forecasted electricity demand and assessed the potential of renewable energy sources exploitation and the technical, political, social, and environmental constraints. Then, they applied the Life Cycle Assessment methodology to assess the eco-profiles of the identified electricity generation mixes and compared them with the eco-profile of electricity produced in 2014. The results of the comparison showed a reduction of most of the 16 examined environmental impact categories, except for those related to human toxicity, particulate matter, ionizing radiation and resource depletion.