Integrated open source life cycle assessment of electricity generation technologies

Energy return ratios help understand the influence of energy on the growth, structure and organization of societies. Energy return ratios also help assess the likelihood of new technologies in terms of sustainability and their influence on economic growth. Net energy analysis is part of Life Cycle Assessment and calculates Energy return ratios of energy systems. In this thesis, we have created LCA models for multiple electricity technologies using data from (Hertwich et al. 2015). The LCA models are integrated to create a system-scale LCA model. Energy return ratios for all the models are calculated using the LCA models representing electricity generation technologies and for the integrated LCA model. We have developed a scalable, object oriented, open source methodology that allows for expansion of the integrated system-scale LCA model and also enable creation and analysis of any other LCA model.