Life Cycle Assessment of Stationary Storage Systems within the Italian Electric Network
Ricerca Sistema Energetico–RSE SpA, Via R. Rubattino 54, 20134 Milan, Italy
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Academic Editor: Nídia Caetano
Energies 2021, 14(8), 2047; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14082047
Received: 19 March 2021 / Revised: 3 April 2021 / Accepted: 5 April 2021 / Published: 7 April 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Developing the World in 2021 with Clean and Safe Energy)
The introduction of stationary storage systems into the Italian electric network is necessary to accommodate the increasing share of energy from non-programmable renewable sources and to reach progressive decarbonization targets. In this framework, a life cycle assessment is a suitable tool to assess environmental impacts during the entire life cycle of stationary storage systems, i.e., their sustainability. A Li-ion battery (lithium–iron–phosphate (LFP), nickel–manganese–cobalt (NMC) 532, and NMC 622) entire life cycle assessment (LCA) based on primary and literature data was performed. The LCA results showed that energy consumption (predominantly during cell production), battery design (particularly binder choice), inventory accuracy, and data quality are key aspects that can strongly affect results. Regarding the battery construction phase, LFP batteries showed better performance than the NMC ones, but when the end-of-life (EoL) stage was included, NMC cell performance became very close to those of LFPs. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses, done using the Monte Carlo methodology, confirmed that the results (except for the freshwater eutrophication indicator) were characterized by a low dispersion and that the energy mix choice, during the different battery life phases, was able to greatly influence the overall impact. The use of primary and updated data related to battery cell production, like those used in the present paper, was necessary to obtain reliable results, and the application to a European production line is an item of novelty of this paper.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Carvalho, M.L.; Temporelli, A.; Girardi, P. Life Cycle Assessment of Stationary Storage Systems within the Italian Electric Network. Energies 2021, 14, 2047. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14082047
AMA Style
Carvalho ML, Temporelli A, Girardi P. Life Cycle Assessment of Stationary Storage Systems within the Italian Electric Network. Energies. 2021; 14(8):2047. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14082047
Chicago/Turabian StyleCarvalho, Maria L.; Temporelli, Andrea; Girardi, Pierpaolo. 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment of Stationary Storage Systems within the Italian Electric Network" Energies 14, no. 8: 2047. https://doi.org/10.3390/en14082047
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