Environmental impacts of energy extraction and consumption
Zurich and other cities in Switzerland committed themselves to the 2000 Watt society, a concept developed by the ETH domain (visit the novatlantis website). On one hand, the 2000 Watt society concept implies effective measures to significantly reduce the energy demand. On the other, the question regarding the most effective energy technologies needs to be addressed as well.
Since the early nineties, staff members of ESU-services Ltd. contribute to the environmental assessment of energy systems based on life cycle assessment. Long-term experience with the pioneering work on "Oekoinventare von Energiesystemen", decorated with the ABB energy technology award, with the internationally leading ecoinvent database and with large European projects such as ECLIPSE, NEEDS and RENEW make ESU-services Ltd. the first address in Switzerland when it comes to fair and unbiased LCA of today's and future energy systems.
The environmental impacts, expressed with the recent update of the ecological scarcity method, are lowest with hydro power, waste incineration and wind power. The environmental impacts of nuclear power are at more than twice as high than electricity from wood or biogas.
ESU-services has also developed webtools to calculate the environmental impacts of your own mix of electricity or district heat and of various transport services.
Selected Publications
See also our full list of publications related to energy systems.
Niels Jungbluth, Christoph Meili, Maresa Bussa (2021) LCI of methane emissions linked to oil and gas production. ESU-services Ltd., Presentation for Workshop organized by Plastics Europe.
Niels Jungbluth, Christoph Meili (2018) Update of the life cycle inventory data for crude oil and mineral oil products. SETAC Europe 24th LCA Symposium in Vienna, Software, tools and databases (II), Monday September 24th, 2018
Jungbluth N., Meili C. and Wenzel P. (2018) Update of LCI data for crude oil and mineral oil products (ongoing). ESU-services Ltd. commissioned by BFE, BAFU, Erdöl-Vereinigung, Schaffhausen, Switzerland, retrieved from: www.lc-inventories.ch.
Meili C. and Jungbluth N. (2018) Life cycle inventories of crude oil extraction. ESU-services Ltd. commissioned by BFE, BAFU, Erdöl-Vereinigung, Schaffhausen, Switzerland, retrieved from: www.lc-inventories.ch.
Meili C., Jungbluth N. and Wenzel P. (2018) Life cycle inventories of long distance transport of crude oil. ESU-services Ltd. commissioned by BFE, BAFU, Erdöl-Vereinigung, Schaffhausen, Switzerland, retrieved from: www.lc-inventories.ch.
Jungbluth N., Meili C. and Wenzel P. (2018) Life cycle inventories of oil refinery processing and products. ESU-services Ltd. commissioned by BFE, BAFU, Erdöl-Vereinigung, Schaffhausen, Switzerland, retrieved from: www.lc-inventories.ch.
Jungbluth N. and Meili C. (2018) Life cycle inventories of oil products distribution. ESU-services Ltd. commissioned by BFE, BAFU, Erdöl-Vereinigung, Schaffhausen, Switzerland, retrieved from: www.lc-inventories.ch.
Jungbluth N., Wenzel P. and Meili C. (2018) Life Cycle Inventories of oil heating systems. ESU-services Ltd. commissioned by BFE, BAFU, Erdöl-Vereinigung, Schaffhausen, Switzerland, retrieved from: www.lc-inventories.ch.
Bauer Ch., Frischknecht R., Eckle P., Flury K., Neal T., Papp K., Schori S., Simons A., Stucki M. and Treyer K. (2012) Umweltauswirkungen der Stromerzeugung in der Schweiz, Juli 2012. Im Auftrag des Bundesamtes für Energie BfE, ESU-services Ltd., Uster, CH.
Frischknecht R., Itten R. and Flury K. (2012) Treibhausgas-Emissionen der Schweizer Strommixe. ESU-services Ltd. im Auftrag des Bundesamts für Umwelt BAFU, Uster, CH
Frischknecht R., Stucki M., Flury K., Itten R. and Tuchschmid M. (2012) Primärenergiefaktoren von Energiesystemen, Version 2.2, Juli 2012. im Auftrag des Bundesamtes für Energie BfE, ESU-services Ltd., Uster, CH.
Frischknecht R., Tuchschmid M. and Itten R. (2011) Primärenergiefaktoren von Energiesystemen, Version 2.2. im Auftrag des Bundesamtes für Energie BfE, ESU-services Ltd., Uster, CH.
Frischknecht R., M. Tuchschmid, 2008, Primärenergiefaktoren von Energiesystemen, Version 1.4, im Auftrag des Amts für Hochbauten der Stadt Zürich und von novatlantis, ESU-services Ltd., Uster, CH.
