Sustainability assessment of electricity production technologies based on the turkish RES scenario in 2020

Abstract

Environmental protection, economic development and social development are known to be three pillars of sustainability that should exist together for sustainable development. Sustainability assessment can be carried out for products, technologies, policies and processes. In this master thesis project, three pillars of sustainability are deeply studied with regards to electricity production technologies in Turkey for year 2020, in which futuristic projections are based on one chosen renewable energy scenario. In the context of this work, sustainability assessment of electricity production technologies is carried out in a way to cover greenhouse emissions, economical activity contribution and employment generation stemming from each type of technology with regards to environmental, social and economic aspects, respectively. The methods followed to realize this work comprise life cycle assessment and extended input-output analysis techniques. As extended input-output analysis enables to evaluate all three pillars of sustainability, a separate life cycle assessment is carried out for all electricity producing technologies to obtain a more peculiar environmental evaluation in the end. As all technologies are identified with respect to their impacts concerning environmental, social and economical concerns, the types of technologies to promote or eliminate are recommended finally.