Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-7-2018
Department
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Abstract
Avoiding climate destabilization caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, requires climate-neutral electricity sources. It has been proposed that the GHG emissions from coal-fired power plants can be offset by carbon capture and sequestration or bio-sequestration. However, solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has recently declined so far in costs it now offers both technical and economic potential to offset all of coal-fired electricity use. PV only emits GHGs during fabrication and not during use. To determine which technical solution to climate-neutral electricity generation should be preferred, this study aggregates and synthesizes life cycle analysis studies for exergy, GHG emissions and land transformation for climate-neutral electricity. The results show that because of lower exergy efficiencies coal plants emit 13–18 times more GHG and transform 5–13 times more land than PV. Optimal bio-sequestration of coal-fired GHG requires 62% of U.S. arable land or 89% of all U.S land with average forest cover. Carbon capture and storage and enhanced oil recovery can improve coal performance, but for all cases the results clearly show that PV is a far more effective use of land. Overall, for the first time this study found climate-neutral photovoltaic farms are a preferred solution to climate-neutral coal fired electricity generation.
Publication Title
Scientific Reports
Recommended Citation
Groesbeck, J. G.,
&
Pearce, J. M.
(2018).
Coal with carbon capture and sequestration is not as land use efficient as solar photovoltaic technology for climate neutral electricity production.
Scientific Reports,
8, 1-17.
http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-31505-3
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/218
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
© The Author(s) 2018. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-31505-3