Finding Renewable Energy Production Systems

Renewable energy pays a key role in decarbonizing the energy grid. Including such systems to your building LCA or carbon assessment is getting more common, however there is still a limitation to the quantity of data available for renewable energy systems. 

As a rule of thumb, if you have an EPD, search for the EPD number first. If the data is eligible for use in your calculation tool the majority of the times it will already be available. 

In this article we will discuss how you can find the right system in One Click LCA. The systems you will be looking for can be found by free-text search or using our pre-defined material filter. 

Material filter: 'Installations and Systems' and selecting the sub-filter 'Energy Production Systems From Renewable Energy'

Any material or system meeting these requirements can be found with this filter. This will include products like Photovoltaic Panels, Wind Turbines and Burning stoves. 

Selecting Photovoltaic (solar) Panels

1. When you are selecting PV panels find out first what type of PV panel you have. The differentiation here can be made between the following systems:

• Monocrystalline panels
• Polycrystalline panels

2. Find out which functional unit you want to use.:

PV panels are often recorded either per functional unit, meaning one panel of a specific size, or per area definition (often m2). You can make a choice if including the number of PV panels you have, or the area which needs to be covered by PV panels (e.g. roof surface area, field size and so on).

3. Comparing the energy output of the PV panels:

PV panel EPDs often provide their peak generation potential with the functional unit and the description. This is often provided in Wp (WattPeak), which is not the annual quantity of generated energy.

Selecting Wind Turbines

Including Wind Turbines is more difficult than PV panels as the availability of EPDs for such systems is scarce. Searching for 'Wind Turbine' will provide you with the available options and otherwise the best practice is to find out (based on technical specs) the components of the system and their material makeup, and include these as separate quantities of the corresponding material to your input query.

Selecting Other Types Of Renewable Energy Production Systems

You might be able to find some other renewable energy production systems like wood burning stoves as well by searching for their names directly or using accounting for them with the above method based on material type and mass.