Life cycle assessment of Iran energy portfolio: Renewable energy replacement approach

Nowadays, due to the increasing energy demand in different industry, agriculture, and household sectors, great importance is attached to energy portfolio and generation/consumption in macrolevel planning. A viable approach to power generation planning is the environmental assessment of the power generation process. This study employs life cycle assessment based on Eco-Indicator 99 methodology which analyzes midpoint and endpoint impacts. Energy impact evaluation is based on Eco-invent database from resource harvesting to recycling. The study aims to assess Iran's energy production/consumption portfolio, but technical construction, operation, and recycling are not discussed. The study focuses on energy demand and energy generation resources in Iran, under three energy portfolio scenarios: (1) a basic scenario is a real energy portfolio for Iran's 2018-power demand, (2) Iran's 2050-energy portfolio with maximum accessible renewable energy capacity, and (3) Iran's 2050-energy portfolio with zero-carbon emission to evaluate the final consequences of life cycle. The York model is used to estimate energy demand in 2050. The Green-X model is used to evaluate the relationship between the impacts and economic growth. Iran's energy portfolio has a low emission, compared with the global portfolio with a 36%-coal application. Among Iran's portfolios, the most adventitious scenario is in 2018, followed by the 2050 portfolio with population growth and 50% increase in energy demand, and the zero-carbon scenario with 64% of energy portfolio based on solar and wind energy technologies. Compared with the 2018 scenario, in the second and third scenarios, the environmental effects are decreased by 40% and 52%, respectively, indicating the significance of renewable energy in reducing the environmental consequences.

Automated summary

This study employs life cycle assessment to evaluate Iran's energy production/consumption portfolio and analyzes the environmental impacts under three energy portfolio scenarios. The results show that Iran's energy portfolio has lower emissions compared to the global portfolio, with the 2018 scenario being the most favorable in terms of environmental protection, followed by the 2050 scenario and the zero-carbon scenario based on solar and wind energy technologies. Compared to the 2018 scenario, the environmental effects are reduced by 40% and 52% in the second and third scenarios, respectively, highlighting the significance of renewable energy in reducing environmental consequences.