Environmental analysis of a nano-grid: A Life Cycle Assessment

Federico Rossi; Maria Laura Parisi; Simone Maranghi; Riccardo Basosi; Adalgisa Sinicropi

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134814

Environmental analysis of a nano-grid: A Life Cycle Assessment

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Jan 15:700:134814. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134814. Epub 2019 Oct 21.

Authors

Federico Rossi¹, Maria Laura Parisi², Simone Maranghi³, Riccardo Basosi⁴, Adalgisa Sinicropi²

Affiliations

¹ University of Siena, R(2)ES Lab, Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, Via A. Moro, 2, Siena, Italy; University of Florence, Department of Industrial Engineering, Via Santa Marta, 3, Florence, Italy.
² University of Siena, R(2)ES Lab, Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, Via A. Moro, 2, Siena, Italy; CSGI, Center for Colloid and Surface Science, via della Lastruccia 3, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Institute of Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds (CNR-ICCOM), Via Madonna del Piano 10, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
³ University of Siena, R(2)ES Lab, Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, Via A. Moro, 2, Siena, Italy; CSGI, Center for Colloid and Surface Science, via della Lastruccia 3, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
⁴ University of Siena, R(2)ES Lab, Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, Via A. Moro, 2, Siena, Italy; CSGI, Center for Colloid and Surface Science, via della Lastruccia 3, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Institute of Chemistry of Organometallic Compounds (CNR-ICCOM), Via Madonna del Piano 10, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy. Electronic address: riccardo.basosi@unisi.it.

PMID: 31693959
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.134814

Abstract

Renewable energy sources are fundamental to face the problem of climate changes. Unfortunately, some resources, such as wind and solar radiation, have fluctuations affecting the electrical grids stability. Energy storage systems can be used for a smart energy management to accumulate power from renewable sources. For such reason, these devices play a key role to achieve a sustainable electric system. On the other hand, they are affected by some environmental drawbacks mainly connected with the depletion of rare and expensive materials. Based on these considerations, in this study a nano-grid composed by a photovoltaic plant, a backup generator and an energy storage system is analysed by an environmental Life Cycle Assessment approach. A Solar Home System is designed, and its environmental profile is evaluated considering several Lithium-ion batteries. Among them, nickel-cobalt aluminium oxide cells resulted to be the most suitable solution for a Solar Home System (46.66 Pts/MWh). Moreover, a sensitivity analysis of the Solar Home System is performed and a hybrid energy storage plant integrating hydrogen and batteries is proposed to face the problem of seasonal solar radiation variability. Four scenarios having different gas pressure levels and lifespan of the devices are considered. Results show that currently the most sustainable configuration is represented by the Solar Home System, but in the future a hybrid nano-grid equipped with 700 bar hydrogen storage might be the best off-grid configuration for minimizing the impact on the environment (37.77 Pts/MWh). Extending the perspective of our analysis to future on-grid potential configurations, an efficient connection of the Solar Home System with a smart-grid is assessed as it looks more sustainable than other off-grid solutions (22.81 Pts/MWh).