摘要
This study presents an analysis of the environmental performances of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) located in central Europe based on life cycle assessment (LCA) of ten significant design options. Each of those is identified with a set of several technical parameters including the risk of induced seismicity.Results show that EGS impacts are comparable to those of other renewable energy technologies and significantly lower than those of conventional power plants. A comparison of the ten scenarios enables us to formulate recommendations on the environmental suitability of their design. Moreover, it emerges from this study that the risk of induced seismicity is a key discriminating factor, as it increases proportionally to the environmental benefit.The model based on five impact categories presented in this paper provides a useful tool for obtaining an overview of the environmental constraints of EGS installations and can be replicated to evaluate possible analogous installations exploring other design options.