Renewable energies for Graciosa Island, Azores - Life Cycle Assessment of electricity generation

The Graciosa project combines a large scale battery energy storage system with renewable electricity generation from wind power and photovoltaics in a hybrid power plant to reduce the environmental impacts caused by the previous electricity generation by 100 % diesel combustion on Graciosa Island, Azores. The results of a Life Cycle Assessment show a reduction of environmental impacts of approx. 43 % due to the transformation to the hybrid electricity supply system with high shares of renewable energies (65 %). In the new electricity supply system, the majority of environmental impacts (> 60 %) is still caused by the remaining diesel based electricity generation. Environmental impacts, which are associated with the construction of the large scale battery energy storage system, account for only 6 % of total impacts. Wind power and photovoltaics account for 18 % and 14 %, respectively.