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Master
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Life cycle assessment of residential heating systems in Geneva: Current and projected environmental impacts

Contributors

Da Silva Montenegro, Natacha

Directors

Trutnevyte, Evelina

Number of pages

52

Defense date

2023

Abstract

This study calculated the total useful energy demand of residential buildings in Geneva for both the current heat mix and four prospective scenarios for 2035. A lifecycle assessment was conducted to evaluate the impacts of supplying residential buildings with one year of heat in the present and future scenarios, using the current heat mix as a baseline for comparison. The results showed that the future scenarios would decrease the total useful heat demand by maximum 20% compared to the baseline (2.2TWh). Every future scenario except BAU would decrease global warming impacts by 40-50%. The EE+ scenario is the only scenario that would significantly reduce the impacts on fine particulate matter formation (-59%) and global warming (-44%) without increasing the impacts on mineral resource scarcity and water consumption. However, these results are sensitive to the quantity of heat delivered. Furthermore, no energy source for the heat mixes had the lowest impacts in every impact category. Finally, significant impacts were identified over the lifecycle of renewable energy sources besides the use phase, notably during the production phase of wood, heat pumps and solar thermal systems.

Keywords

  • Life cycle assessment (LCA)
  • Heating systems
  • Residential buildings
  • Heat demand
  • Geneva
  • Switzerland
  • District heating
  • Future energy scenario

UNIGE affiliation entities

UNIGE research groups

Citation (ISO format)

DA SILVA MONTENEGRO, Natacha. Life cycle assessment of residential heating systems in Geneva: Current and projected environmental impacts. Master, 2023.

Main files (1)

Master thesis

Identifiers

  • PID : unige:175993
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Technical informations

Creation

25/03/2024 16:09:10

First validation

27/03/2024 14:03:37

Update

06/09/2024 08:42:33

Status update

06/09/2024 08:42:33

Last indexation

01/11/2024 09:03:26
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