Description
Book SynopsisThis groundbreaking work is the most in-depth and state-of-the-art study on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of energy systems, the only volume available on this critical subject.
Energy and sustainability are two of the most important and often most misunderstood subjects in our world today. As these two subjects have grown in importance over the last few decades, interest in the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) model has grown as well, as a potentially crucial tool in understanding and striving towards sustainability in energy systems. Not just wind and solar systems, but all energy systems, need to be understood through this model.
Wind and solar power have the potential to decentralize the U.S. energy system by offering local communities electricity and economic support, depending on the scale and design of projects. Nevertheless, every energy technology potentially faces environmental costs, lay and expert opposition, and risks to public health. Engineers play a
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Part I Engineering and Sustainability 1
1 Engineering Sustainability, Sustaining Engineering 3
2 A Critical History of Sustainability Engineering 23
3 Resisting Sustainability 77
Part II Life Cycle Analysis 111
4 When Social Values Make an Entry 113
5 Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) Rationalities 149
Part III Case Studies 191
6 Life Cycle Sustainability, Renewable Energy Project Development, and the Exclusion of Local Knowledge in California’s Western Antelope Valley (WAV) 193
7 Through an Ethnographic Lens: Local-Regional Politics of Utility Solar and Wind Siting in California 235
8 Epilogue 303
Bibliography 317
Appendix 1: Solar Ranch One Timeline (Siting, Permitting, Financing and Pre-Construction) 346
Appendix 2: Sample of Community Concerns as Regards to the Solar Ranch One, Alpine, Wildflower and Blue
Sky RE projects 349
Index 355
