Speaker: Michael H Young, Associate Dean for Research and Research Professor | Jackson School of Geosciences | Bureau of Economic Geology
The University of Texas at Austin

Host: Demian Saffer

Title: Comparing Life-Cycle Environmental Impacts and Costs of Electricity Generation Systems

Abstract: What are the all-in costs, environmental and economic, of expanding and running an electrical grid for Texas, and how might these costs change over the next 30 years? Can we quantify trade-offs among society’s goals of providing reliable and affordable energy, mitigating climate change, and ensuring affordability for consumers? We achieve these goals through comparative life-cycle assessments (LCA) of different generation systems that include 18 different environmental pathways, including greenhouse gases (CO₂eq) and local emissions (particulate matter, SO_X, NO_X); land and water use and pollution, biodiversity and ecosystem impacts, and others. These LCA analyses consider extraction of natural resources (gas, minerals, etc.), manufacturing of generation equipment, power plant operations, and end-of-life options (e.g., landfilling or recycling of equipment).

We show how environmental impacts manifest along global supply chains for materials (e.g., lithium, cobalt, etc.) that support energy development at different times during the 30-year lifespan of the facilities. And, we connect every operating facility, using different generation mixes, to a nodal-scale, grid dispatch model that allows us to track grid reliability (goal #1), improvements in environmental performance (goal #2) and differences in consumer cost of electricity (goal #3). The results show the complicated nature of impacts along the global supply chain of materials needed for energy development and while electricity is generated, and they point to areas where impacts can be mitigated through innovation and action.