Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) analysis model for a stand-alone hybrid renewable energy system

Nowadays the biggest challenge for most organizations is a real and substantial application of sustainability through the measurement and comparability of results in order to satisfy the principles of sustainability of all the stakeholders. Definitively, it is necessary to pursue sustainability through the measurements of specific indicators and control the variables that influence the state of the economic, social and environmental issues. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the development of a comprehensive, yet practical and reliable tool for a systematic sustainability assessment, based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to support decision makers in complex decision problems in the field of environmental sustainability. The results are applied to a novel compressed air energy storage system proposed as a suitable technology for the energy storage in a small scale stand-alone renewable energy power plant (photovoltaic power plant) that is designed to satisfy the energy demand of a radio base station for mobile telecommunications. The outcome is a dynamic analysis and iterative integrated sustainability assessment of corporate performance