Sustainable energy transition: Beyond material analysis

对能源安全、电网可靠性和全球变暖的日益关注，加上可再生能源成本的快速下降，导致美国（US）的能源转型，其中正在部署光伏（PV）和风力涡轮机，以取代煤炭发电并满足日益增长的电力需求。今天开发的能源解决方案在未来仍然是可取的，而不是造成新的环境问题。随着未来能源部署目标的确立，重要的是要调查替代能源技术部署所需材料的大规模开采的潜在意外后果。该项目的总体目标是评估能源转型对美国电力生产的潜在长期影响。该项目将评估美国能源转型的可持续性，同时考虑与全球核能需求增加以及大规模部署替代能源，特别是风能和光能相关的环境和政治影响（在供应材料的外国，考虑到经典的“资源诅咒”效应）。该项目的目标是提供以下结果：1）到2040年，光伏、风能和核能部署的材料需求和可用性，2）考虑到各国具体材料提取和影响，对发电技术进行相应的生命周期评估，第三章评估和比较与生产不同形式的可再生能源和传统能源有关的地缘政治成本，能源和4）美国能源部署的可持续性评估，直到2040年。它将结合联合收割机工业生态学原理，如生命周期评估，材料分析以及可持续性指标，包括政治稳定性（在国外），以调查可持续能源部署所需的材料。从这项工作中收集的生命周期清单数据将被提交到Ecoinvent数据库和其他免费提供的数据库中，以鼓励研究人员将LCA用于能源研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Increasing concerns about energy security, grid reliability, and global warming, combined with a rapid decrease in renewable energy costs, have resulted in an energy transition in the United States (US) where photovoltaics (PV) and wind turbines are being deployed, replacing coal generation and providing for increasing electricity demand. Energy solutions developed today should remain desirable in the future, and not create new environmental issues. As future energy deployment goals are established, it is important to investigate potential unintended consequences of large-scale extraction of materials required for alternative energy technologies deployment. The overall goal of this project is to evaluate the potential long-term effects of electricity production in the US as a result of energy transition. The project will evaluate the sustainability of energy transition in the United States by simultaneously considering the environmental and political impact (in foreign countries supplying materials, taking into account the classical "Resource Curse" effect) associated with increase in global demand for nuclear energy as well as large-scale deployment of energy alternatives, in particular wind and photovoltaics. This project is targeted to provide results including 1) material requirement and availability for photovoltaics, wind and nuclear deployment until 2040, 2) consequential life cycle assessment of electricity generation technologies considering country-specific material extraction and impact, 3) an assessment and comparison of the geopolitical costs associated with the production of different forms of energy for renewable and conventional types of energy and 4) sustainability assessment of energy deployment in the US until 2040. It will combine industrial ecology principles such as life cycle assessment, material analysis as well as sustainability metrics including political stability (in foreign counties) to investigate material required for sustainable energy deployment. Life cycle inventory data collected from this work will be submitted for inclusion in the Ecoinvent database and other freely available ones to encourage researchers to use LCA for energy research.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.