FULL-ENERGY CHAIN ANALYSIS OF GREENHOUSE-GAS EMISSIONS FOR SOLAR THERMAL ELECTRIC-POWER GENERATION SYSTEMS

Renewable energy generation of electricity is advocated as a means of reducing carbon dioxide emissions associated with the generation from fossil fuels. Whilst it is true that renewable sources do not generate significant carbon dioxide whilst producing electricity, as with foss il-fuelled plants they do embody significant emissions in their materi als of construction. The ''full-chain'' environmental impacts of wind, hydro, solarthermal and photovoltaic conversion are quite different a nd the likely trend in future reduction of embodied energy of next gen eration systems reflects the relative maturity of each technology. The re has been much recent development of solar thermal electricity gener ation options for which there is a wide divergence in embodied CO2 emi ssions. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.