How does a consequential model work in electricity production?

Question

Hello,

I am performing a life cycle assessment on photovoltaic electricity production using ecoinvent 3.7 (consequential).

I have a question about the concept of consequential modelling with regards to the following process.

• electricity production, photovoltaic, 3kWp slanted-roof installation, multi-Si, panel, mounted | electricity, low voltage | Consequential, U

According to the definition, the consequential model will calculate the results (or consequences) of change in a system.

Could you please explain  this in the case of electricity production (the above-mentioned process)?

For example, can I say that:

Production of PV electricity will result in a decrease in other sources of electricity production such as natural gas, hydro, etc.

So, the question is that this model will continue to consider many processes because a supply in a product will change the demand in another (so complex!)

Is there any criteria for this in ecoinvent (v 3.7)? Can I set a cut-off for these consequences? If so, how?

Answer 1

Hi, this is a good and complicated question. You can see some documentation in the methodological report of ecoinvent, but unfortunately ecoinvent does not reveal the code of the tool they use to create the different system models, i.e. also not how the consequential system is created. In ecoinvent.org, you can see also the unallocated processes before the system models are created, for documentation reasons rather. For the consequential database released by ecoinvent, everything is hardwired, so to say, so there are no changes in the linking (foreseen by ecoinvent) any more.

So:

question is that this model will continue to consider many processes because a supply in a product will change the demand in another

Once the database is released, no, the linkage will not change any more (unless you do this, script-based, in openLCA).

Best wishes,

Andreas