Tom Terlouw (Paul Scherrer Institute PSI)

Overview

Energy system models are key to analyzing pathways towards low-carbon economies and informing decision-makers on how to design suitable policy measures. However, current energy system models mainly focus on techno-economic performance and operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, often overlooking potential environmental trade-offs and life-cycle impacts. Here, we show how such energy system models can be linked with life cycle assessment (LCA) to capture a comprehensive set of environmental burdens—such as material utilization, water consumption, and human toxicity—beyond the (operational) carbon footprint. The first part of this presentation focuses on the environmental and economic assessment of low-carbon fuels as well as decentralized energy systems, examining how the inclusion of LCA can lead to more sustainable energy systems. The second part examines the role of carbon dioxide removal technologies, such as direct air capture with CO 2 storage, in compensating for unavoidable emissions from low-carbon energy systems. Finally, this presentation provides recommendations on how to improve future assessments of (low-carbon) energy systems.