A future where electricity comes mostly from low-carbon sources is not only feasible in terms of material demand, but will significantly reduce air pollution, it is claimed.
An international team led by Edgar Hertwich and Thomas Gibon from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have conducted what is said to be the first-ever global comprehensive life cycle assessment of the long-term, wide-scale implementation of electricity generation from renewable resources.
The study has assembled and scaled up the assessment of individual technologies to the whole world and assessed technology implementation to 2050, taking the environmental impacts of production into account.
