LCA Harmonization

LCA Harmonization

The LCA Harmonization project systematically reviewed estimates of life cycle GHG emissions from electricity generation technologies published between 1970 and 2010. LCAs consider emissions from all stages in the life cycle of an electricity generation technology, from component manufacturing, to operation of the generation facility to its decommissioning, and including acquisition, processing and transport of any required fuels. For selected technologies, a meta-analytical procedure called "harmonization" was applied to adjust estimates so that they were methodologically more consistent and therefore more comparable. This was done to reduce variability and clarify central tendency in the estimate of life cycle GHG emissions to that more robust decisions can be made and other analyses relying on such estimates can be strengthened.

This application (app) allows for customized visualization of summary statistics and the underlying published estimates collected for each technology, as well as companion harmonized estimates. Data selected and their associated reference citations can be downloaded.

For more information on LCA, this project, its methods and results see this series of web pages. Peer-reviewed publications supporting the results presented here are linked from those web pages.

Instructions

There are three areas of the LCA Harmonization app:

•Filters in the Left Column - this displays a hierarchical structure of the data and allows you to choose what data you would like to see. For example, you can compare all Bio-Power data (by selecting Bio-Power), versus specifially Bio-Power using Co-Firing, versus Nuclear BWR (Boiling Water Reactor). If you hover the mouse over the terms, a tooltip will appear with the full name of the term.

•Tabs - these allow you to select how you'd like the selected data to be displayed. You can choose charts, a table of all the data used to create the charts (ie the subset of the entire set of data based on your filter selections).

•Main Area - the main area of the app that displays the results based on your selections.