Life cycle assessment of future energy system flexibility – a methodological framework applied to Belgium

Description

Measuring the environmental impact of V2G on a national scale is complex: First, an system energy model is needed to determine the supply mix of every hour over a year. Second, a fleet simulation is required to consider the energy that can be provided by V2G service. Third, the climate change (CC) of the hourly supply mix needs to be calculated. Forth, the model should evaluate the future, e.g. 2050. To the authors knowledge, currently no such model exists to evaluate the future energy system flexibility with LCA. Therefore, this abstract proposes a methodological framework to assess flexibility provided by the BE EV fleet to the national electricity gird in the future.

The proposed methodological framework combines a hourly national dispatch model with a custom-scenario of prospective life cycle inventory (PLCI) database for Belgium and a simulation on the future Belgium EV fleet to calculate the V2G benefits provided by the EV fleet of Belgium. The time horizon of this study is 2050.

To calculate the climate change in 2050 of the supply mix provided by the hourly national dispatch model, a PLCI database is built. Afterwards, the electricity demand will be decreased first by the available electricity supplied from V2G services. This demand can be fed into the updated DOF again and the hourly CC can be determined. The benefit of offering V2G service can then be compiled by subtracting the old from the new hourly CC. Methodological differences can be identified afterwards comparing different PATHS2050 scenarios and PLCI databases. Final results will be computed until the conference.

This abstract presents a novel framework to evaluate the environmental benefits of the Belgium EV fleet providing vehicle-to-grid services in 2050 by combining a non-standard LCA approach with LCA. Particularly, the future Belgium EV fleet is simulated and consequently assessed using a national hourly dispatch model combined with custom-scenario life cycle inventory databases. The presented framework can support politicians to advocate for a broader application of V2G technology and thus make use of the available future EV fleet to integrate more renewable energies into the electricity grid.

Periode	5 mei 2024 → 9 mei 2024
Evenementstitel	SETAC Europe 34th Annual Meeting
Evenementstype	Conference
Conferentienummer	34
Locatie	Sevilla, Spain
Mate van erkenning	International