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Geothermal Energy Impact Estimator: A software application for estimating the life-cycle environmental impacts of geothermal energy

List of Authors

  1. Andrea Paulillo ,  
  2. Xiaofei Cui
    ,  
  3. Paul Brown
    ,  
  4. Alberto Striolo
    ,  
  5. Paola Lettieri
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Abstract

Geothermal energy is a renewable source of base-load power that is expected to play an important role in the transition to a low-carbon economy. In this article, we introduce a novel software application – named Geothermal Energy Impact Estimator – which computes the environmental impacts, including carbon emissions, of existing or future geothermal plants, using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. The software application is user-friendly and was designed to be used by geothermal companies and policy makers. We provide two specific use cases of the software application that represent existing plants in Iceland and in the UK.

Corresponding author
Paola Lettieri
Grant information

This research was financially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No 764810 (Science for Clean Energy [S4CE]).

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Copyright
© 2023 Andrea Paulillo (Co-Author); Xiaofei Cui (Co-Author); Paul Brown (Co-Author); Alberto Striolo (Co-Author); Paola Lettieri (Corresponding Author, Co-Author) Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Latest version published
Revised

Amendment

In light of the Reviewers’ comments, below are the main changes in this revised version:
  • In the Introduction, we have better clarified the concept of variability and how it can affect the environmental performance of geothermal plants.
  • In the “Methods -  Implementation” section, we have clarified the main difference between the “full” model in this article and that already published Paulillo et al. (2021), which is that the former includes the case of co-generation of electricity and thermal energy.
  • In the same Section, we have included a couple of sentences noting that some parameters (like the consumption of diesel) may not be available for prospective studies, and what users might do to fill the gap.
  • In the “Methods -  Operation” section, we have clarified which activities are allocated in the case of co-generation of heat and power.
  • In the same Section, we have also replaced Figure 3 with a higher quality version.
  • Finally, in the “Software Availability” section, we have included a note to explain how to install the software in the “Software Availability” section.

Comments

Authors & roles

Andrea Paulillo

Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London, London, WC1 E7JE, UK

Roles
Co-Author, Conceptualization, Data Curation, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-0931-3113

Xiaofei Cui

TWI Ltd., Cambridge, CB21 6AL, UK

Roles
Co-Author, Funding Acquisition, Project Administration, Resources, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing

Paul Brown

TWI Ltd., Cambridge, CB21 6AL, UK

Roles
Co-Author, Data Curation, Software

Alberto Striolo

Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London, London, WC1 E7JE, UK

School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 73019, USA

Roles
Co-Author, Funding Acquisition, Project Administration, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing

Paola Lettieri

Department of Chemical Engineering, University College London, London, WC1 E7JE, UK

Roles
Corresponding Author, Co-Author, Funding Acquisition, Resources, Supervision, Writing – Review & Editing

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