P.J. Meier, G.L. Kulcinski, Life-Cycle Energy Cost and Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Gas Turbine Power. Energy Center of Wisconsin Research Report 202-1, 2000.

Abstract

This study performs a life-cycle assessment on a modern gas turbine power plant to evaluate net energy and greenhouse gas emissions. The life-cycle includes natural gas production and transmission, fabrication of equipment and structural materials, plant construction, operation, and decommissioning. The result of the net energy analysis is an energy payback ratio (EPR), which is the ratio of useful electrical output to the total energy inputs. The EPR for the gas turbine is 4.1 and is limited by large energy investments associated with the fuel cycle. The gas turbine EPR is low compared to coal (11), fission (16), fusion (27), and wind turbine (23) technologies. The greenhouse gas emission rate is calculated using the inputs from the net energy analysis. Normalized over its life-cycle, the gas turbine emits 464 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent for every gigawatt-hour of electricity produced (tonne/GWeh). This emission rate is lower than conventional coal (974 tonne/GWeh), but higher than fission (15 tonne/GWeh), fusion (9 tonne/GWeh), and wind (14 tonne/GWeh) technologies.

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