Paris A. Fokaides - Environmental Assessment of Renewable Energy Conversion Technologies

Dr.-Ing. Paris A. Fokaides is an Associate Professor at the School of Engineering of Frederick University, Cyprus, and a research mentor at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania. In Frederick University, Paris is lecturing the courses of Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, as well as the courses of Sustainable Energy Resources, and Energy Design of Buildings in the Masters Programme of Energy Engineering, which he also coordinates. Paris holds a PhD from the University of Karlsruhe, in Germany in the field of Process Engineering and a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering of Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. Paris research is related to the promotion of Industry 4.0 practices for the assessment of the energy and sustainability performance of energy technologies and smart buildings, as well as the field of digitization and analysis of energy related processes. Paris leads the Sustainable Energy Research Group at Frederick University, an ISO 9001 certified self-funded research team consisting of 10 FTE researchers, involved in numerous European and national funded R&I activities. Paris is also Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Sustainable Energy, and member in numerous editorial boards of scientific journals. As of mid-22, Paris has authored and co-authored over 125 Scopus indexed studies, and has an h-index of 30.

Dr. Angeliki Kylili is an Environment Officer at the Department of Environment of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment of the Republic of Cyprus. She has studied BSc Environmental Science and MSc Energy and Environment at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, and has obtained her PhD in Civil Engineering with the Sustainable Energy Research Group (SERG) at Frederick University, Cyprus. Her research is primarily concerned with Life Cycle Assessment and the exploitation of renewable energy sources. She is the author and co-author of 37 publications in international peer-reviewed journals and 4 book chapters, with an h-index of 20. Her current duties as an Environment Officer concern the development and effective implementation of the national and European policy framework for the protection of the environment. Angeliki is a national focal point for the Transport, Health and Environment Pan-European Programme (THE PEP) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), and she is also responsible for following through and providing relevant national contributions to the work of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Committee on Environmental Policy of UNECE.

Ms. Phoebe-Zoe Georgali is a Mechanical Engineer (BSc Mechanical Engineering) graduate from the Technological Education Institute of Chalkida, Greece, 2012 and Energy Engineer postgraduate (MSc Sustainable Energy Systems) at Frederick University, Cyprus, 2017. Since September 2020, Ms. Georgali is a PhD Candidate at Frederick University as a member of the Sustainable Energy Research Group (SERG), engaging with state-of-the-art research regarding sustainable and waste energy technologies, as well as LCA of products and services.

Panagiota Konatzii and Paris A. Fokaides, School of Engineering, Frederick University, Nicosia, Cyprus

Outline

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Under these conditions, the promotion of renewable energy sources and related technologies constitutes the mainstream in the energy production field. The continuous development that prevails in the design and implementation of new renewable energy projects worldwide is accompanied by both research activities to develop more energy-efficient applications, but also environmentally smarter solutions (). Therefore, the question of quantifying the environmental impact of the use of renewable energy sources reaches a point where it can no longer be answered qualitatively but needs to be substantiated, quantitative answers.

The answer to the question of how we can quantify the environmental impact of renewable energy sources is found in life cycle analysis. Life cycle analysis is a well-tested, well-established methodology that can quantify the environmental impact of any product or service throughout its life cycle. From the beginning of the 1990s, when this method appeared, until its first standardization in 1996, today, worldwide, it is considered the most comprehensive methodology for quantifying the environmental impact (). The environmental analysis of renewable energy sources is no exception in relation to the environmental burden determination practices that can be followed.

Decision-making on new installations in the field of energy production and storage using sustainable energy resources should be justified on specific quantitative parameters. Given the growing rate of installation of renewable energy and storage applications, the integral sustainability aspect of the environmental assessment should also be quantified in a similar manner to the technical and financial parameters ().

Efforts to globalize the environmental assessment of services and products with the use of LCA date back to 2013. Particularly, in order to promote and establish LCA as the most common approach for the environmental assessment of services and products, the United Nations initiated in 2013 the Global Guidance on Environmental Life Cycle Impact Assessment Indicators (GLAM) initiative (

The UNEP GLAM initiative is also supported by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, at different levels, participating in meetings and providing scientific inputs, documentation, and technical support, in order to follow possible alignment with different methods development ().

In this context, this book attempts to present the state-of-the-art in the field of environmental valuation of renewable energy sources. By gathering the opinion of the selected academics in the field of environmental valuation of renewable energy sources, this volume wishes to present the latest developments in the field. Specifically, this book hosts eleven (11) chapters, which deal with the following areas: