Methodological approach to account for natural hazards in the Life Cycle Assessment of the energy production sector
Résumé
Several factors must be considered when addressing planning and decision-making for the present and future of the electricity
production sector, such as logistics related to the geographic location, and technical, social, political, economic, and potential
environmental aspects. The latter can be estimated through environmental impact assessments. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is
one of the widely accepted tools to obtain relevant results for planning and decision-making.
Despite the global scope of the LCA method, its typical application focuses on evaluating scenarios describing average or steady states, thus not accounting for the potential environmental consequences of abnormal events, such as natural hazards that can result in important damages. However, it is imperative to consider the latter in the environmental assessment since their possible consequences may irreversibly change the planned projects negatively for all stakeholders.
A way to approach this is to take a scenario-based and parametrized approach to LCA. It aids the practitioner in considering
multiple situations in the product system, but this has limitations in a sector-wide evaluation that considers the negative influences of natural hazards on the system and the environmental impacts of said disturbances.
The purpose of this work is to address these limitations by analysing each phase of the LCA methodology and adapt it for a
comprehensive treatment of natural hazards in LCA. The objective is to provide a decision-making framework that supports
decision-makers in making decisions based on the knowledge and needs of the present that will still be considered fair decisions in the future, especially when considering impacts related to the occurrence of a significant natural event.
As a first attempt, the analysis and the methodological approach to design are based on a case study on the France’s photovoltaic (PV) pathway. Only a few natural hazards, known to be able to cause important disturbances and damages to PV systems are considered. The results from the case study will not be significant to represent a real situation and draw relevant conclusions within the PV sector. However, they will illustrate the strengths, limitations, and feasibility of the proposed methodological framework, thus permitting its continuous improvement and open potential scientific discussions and developments for the PV and the electricity sector.