Systematic Assessment of Carbon Emissions from Renewable Energy Access to Improve Rural Livelihoods

Judith A. Cherni, Raúl Olalde Font, Lucía Serrano, Felipe Henao and Antonio Urbina
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Judith A. Cherni: Department of Environmental Policy, CEP Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Raúl Olalde Font: Departmento de Energía y Tecnologías Ambientales, Universidad Central de Las Villas, Santa Clara, Cuba
Lucía Serrano: Department of Materials & Centre for Plastic Electronics, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Felipe Henao: Facultad de Ciencias Administrativas y Económicas, Universidad Icesi, Calle 18 No. 122-135, 760042 Cali, Colombia
Antonio Urbina: Departamento de Electrónica, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Campus Muralla del Mar, 30202 Cartagena, Spain

Energies, 2016, vol. 9, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: One way of increasing access to electricity for impoverished unconnected areas without adding significant amounts of CO 2 to the atmosphere is by promoting renewable energy technologies. However, decision-makers rarely, if ever, take into account the level of in-built energy requirements and consequential CO 2 emissions found in renewable energy, particularly photovoltaic cells and related equipment, which have been widely disseminated in developing countries. The deployment of solar panels worldwide has mostly relied on silicon crystalline cell modules, despite the fact that less polluting material—in particular, thin film and organic cells—offers comparatively distinct technical, environmental and cost advantages characteristics. A major scientific challenge has thus been the design of a single decision-making approach to assess local and global climate change-related impacts as well as the socio-economic effects of low-carbon technology. The article focuses on the functions of the multi-criteria-based tool SURE-DSS and environmental impact analysis focused on greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions balance to inform the selection of technologies in terms of their impact on livelihoods and CO 2 eq. emissions. An application in a remote rural community in Cuba is discussed. The results of this study show that while PV silicon (c-Si), thin film (CdTe) and organic solar cells may each equally meet the demands of the community and enhance people’s livelihoods, their effect on the global environment varies.

Keywords: photovoltaic technologies; multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA); life-cycle analysis (LCA); rural energy and development; SURE-DSS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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