Life cycle environmental impacts of electricity from fossil fuels in Turkey

This paper presents for the first time the life cycle environmental impacts of electricity generation from fossil fuel power plants in Turkey which supply three quarters of national demand. There are 16 lignite, eight hard coal and 187 gas power plants in Turkey, all of which are considered in the study. The results suggest that electricity generation from gas has the lowest impacts for 10 out of 11 impacts considered. However, its ozone layer depletion is 48 times higher than for lignite and 12 times greater than for hard coal electricity. Lignite is the worst option overall, with eight impacts higher than for hard coal, ranging from 11% higher fossil fuel depletion to six times greater fresh water ecotoxicity. Conversely, its depletion of elements and ozone layer are four times lower than for hard coal; global warming is 6% lower. Most impacts are mainly caused by the operation of power plants and transportation of imported fuels. Annually, electricity generation from fossil fuels emits 109 Mt CO2-eq. and depletes 1660 PJ of primary fossil energy. These and the majority of other impacts are from lignite and hard coal power, despite the gas plants generating almost three and five times more electricity, respectively. Therefore, reducing the share of lignite and hard coal power and expanding the contribution of natural gas would lead to significant reductions of environmental impacts from the electricity sector in Turkey, including greenhouse gas emissions; however, ozone layer depletion would increase substantially.