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Lifecycle Assessment of Electricity Generation transition in Ecuador

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Innovations in Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering ((LNEE,volume 756))

Abstract

Ecuador's energy mix has greatly reduced its dependency on fossil fuels the last 15 years, down to a marginal role (5%) in electricity generation in 2017. The development plan for the Ecuadorian power network aims to keep adding hydropower to meet the increasing demand. A prospective lifecycle assessment (LCA) of the future power network (2012–2050) can determine the feasibility of the development plan and its environmental sustainability in the long run. For a quantitative analysis of the energy transition over the entire lifecycle, the simulation software® Global Emission Model of Integrated System (GEMIS) is used. The results show that the current development path of the Ecuadorian energy system reduces the emissions of CO2 per kWh generated by 65% due to the large share of renewable energies, mainly hydropower, which costs 1% of Gross Domestic Product. The obtained LCA footprints are similar to the literature benchmarks.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Secretaría Nacional de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENESCYT), Ecuador;SISAuresearchGroup, Facultad de Ingeniería y Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación, Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Ambato, Ecuador;Universidad Nacional de Loja, Ecuador; and Centro de Diseño de Equipos Industriales ofUniversidad Politécnica de Cataluña, BarcelonaTech, Spain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SISAu research Group, Facultad de Ingeniería y Tecnologías de la Información y Comuni-Cación, Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Ambato, 180103, Ecuador

    Manuel Ayala-Chauvin

  2. Facultad de la Energía, las Industrias y los Recursos Naturales No Renovables, Universidad Nacional de Loja, Av Pio Jaramillo, Loja, EC110103, Ecuador

    Carlos Samaniego-Ojeda & Jorge Maldonado-Correa

  3. Centro de Diseño de Equipos Industriales, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, Barcelona, 08028, España

    Genís Riba

Authors
  1. Manuel Ayala-Chauvin
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  2. Carlos Samaniego-Ojeda
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  3. Genís Riba
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  4. Jorge Maldonado-Correa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Manuel Ayala-Chauvin .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Saad Mekhilef

  2. University of Science and Technology, Reshetnev Siberian State, Krasnoyarsk, Russia

    Margarita Favorskaya

  3. Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

    R. K. Pandey

  4. School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Galgotias University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Rabindra Nath Shaw

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Ayala-Chauvin, M., Samaniego-Ojeda, C., Riba, G., Maldonado-Correa, J. (2021). Lifecycle Assessment of Electricity Generation transition in Ecuador. In: Mekhilef, S., Favorskaya, M., Pandey, R.K., Shaw, R.N. (eds) Innovations in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol 756. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0749-3_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-0749-3_1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-16-0748-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-16-0749-3

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