Fuel life cycle emissions for electricity consumption in the world’s gaming center–Macao SAR, China

The gaming and hospitality sector has been expanding rapidly in recent years. Concurrently energy consumption in this sector has surged significantly. This paper reviews the literature on the relationship between electricity consumption and economic growth and introduces the 4-parameter logistic functions to model the growth of electricity consumption and other related parameters in the world’s gaming center–Macao, China. The accuracy of the growth models were assessed by using the mean absolute percentage error and the root mean squared percentage error. The paper also introduces the application of life cycle analysis to greenhouse gases emissions for electricity consumption. As Macao in recent years has imported a significant amount of electricity from a coal-fired power plant in its nearby area – Zhuhai, the impact analysis included greenhouse gases emissions from the extraction, transportation, processing, and combustion along fuel life cycles in the local power plant as well as Zhuhai’s power plant. We found that the emissions associated with the imported electricity contributed greatly to total emissions.

► We model electricity consumption and GDP using 4-parameter logistic functions.
► We apply backward life cycle analysis to quantify greenhouse gases emissions.
► Emissions associated with the imported electricity contributed greatly to emissions.