Environmental assessment of SESS applications based on cradle to grave LCA

The aim of the master thesis is to assess the environmental impact of (but not limited to) SESS applications for use case scenarios of energy time shift (4 hour duration system) and frequency regulation (1 hour duration system).

Project Description

Stationary Energy Storage Systems (SESS) are seeing an increased adoption in the last decade and till today. They assist in improving the resiliency and robustness of the energy system, flexibility of the energy grid and adoption of renewable energy sources (RES) by addressing their intermittency. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are widely being used for SESS due to the high level of technology maturity and decreasing cost due to large-scale production economy and well established supply chains.

Various grid-scale energy storage systems have been installed in the recent years with different use cases in mind, in order to achieve better grid stability and economic purpose. In some of these cases, it has been shown that the practise can lead to an increase in overall net carbon emissions of the grid. The aim of the master thesis is to assess the environmental impact of (but not limited to) SESS applications for use case scenarios of energy time shift (4 hour duration system) and frequency regulation (1 hour duration system).

Additional use cases can also be defined and the master thesis student is encouraged to provide use case ideas as well. These applications are to be modelled for present and projected emissions of the energy grid, and, based on the LCA model results, a subsequent analysis is to be performed and an outlook presented.

Main Deliverables

The main deliverables of the project include:

Final project report and presentation comprising description of project, literature review, implementation of models, comparative analysis of different designs and final suggestions.
Flexible LCA model with specified database used