A simplified model for the estimation of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of enhanced geothermal systems

International audienceBackground: The development of 'enhanced geothermal systems' (EGS), designed to extract energy from deep low-enthalpy reservoirs, is opening new scenarios of growth for the whole geothermal sector. A relevant tool to estimate the environmental performances of such emerging renewable energy (RE) technology is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). However, the application of this cradle-to-grave approach is complex and time-consuming. Moreover, LCA results available for EGS case studies cover a fairly high variability range. Methods: A new type of LCA-based approach, called simplified model, is developed based on the analysis of environmental performance variability of energy pathways. Such methodology has been applied to produce a reduced parameterized model, designed to estimate life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of EGS power plants applicable to a large sample of configurations