NREL develops more precise look at cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas emissions for energy technologies [View all]

[phantom power]

The method – a harmonization of widely variant estimates of greenhouse gas emissions by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) – is being heralded as an important step forward in life-cycle assessments that paints a clearer picture of the environmental penalties and benefits of different technologies.

NREL analysts looked at more than 2,000 studies across several energy technologies, applied quality controls and greatly narrowed the range of estimates for greenhouse-gas emissions.

The harmonization found that cradle-to-grave greenhouse-gas emissions from solar photovoltaics are about 5 percent of those from coal; that wind and solar are about equal in emissions; and that nuclear energy is on a par with renewable energy.

And the analysis succeeded in narrowing the huge range of estimates – in some cases by 80 percent to 90 percent – to a robust median, improving precision, and giving stakeholders a much clearer look at the likely environmental impacts of various projects.

http://phys.org/news/2012-05-nrel-precise-cradle-to-grave-greenhouse-gas.html