Regresar

Lights and shadows of the environmental impacts of fossil-based electricity generation technologies: A contribution based on the Ecuadorian experience

Abstract:

Non-renewable technologies still play a significant role in the electricity generation mix of most countries. Thus, relevant up-to-date environmental data are needed to provide a good understanding of the environmental consequences of the fossil fuel electricity generation technologies. The focus of this work is to examine the fossil-based electricity generation technologies used in Ecuador, providing a compelling insight into the revision of existent international databases. The main combinations of fossil fuel and thermal generation technologies have been studied: fuel oil in steam power plants (FO-SP), fuel oil in internal combustion engine power plants (FO-ICE), natural gas in gas turbine power plants (NG-GT), and diesel in gas turbine power plants (D-GT). ISO standards and CML 2000 methodology were further considered to quantify the potential environmental impact associated with the systems. Results show that NG-GT has the lowest environmental burdens, while FO-SP represents the highest impacts in 5 of the 6 studied impact categories. It is remarkable that for the same type of fuel (fuel oil), the ICE power plants have a lower environmental impact than FO-SP plants. Finally, lights and shadows of fossil-based electricity are discussed to provide a general picture of the current debate concerning transition pathways.