Life cycle and emergy based design of energy systems in developing countries: Centralized and localized options

This study analyzes the environmental performance of two centralized clean coal technologies and localized biogas digester, biomass gasifier and a solar PV by joint use of life cycle assessment (LCA) and emergy analysis. We also calculate cost of electricity generation by each of these technologies. The resulting information is utilized to determine the optimum energy mix to meet the energy demand in Rampura Village, Uttar Pradesh, India by solving a linear programming (LP) problem. The LP problem is processed in two steps: first, it is solved for four scenarios involving different practical situations and constraints. After determining the suitable scenario, the optimum energy combination within this scenario is found.