Life Cycle Assessment and Multivariate Data Analysis for an integrated characterisation of the technologies for electric energy production

Power production systems are responsible for the most of local air pollutants as well as greenhouse gases emissions. Renewable energy technologies allow to reduce atmospheric pollution, but their total environmental impact (all life cycle's phases) should be carefully assessed to avoid environmental degradation. The aim of this work was to characterise with a quantitative criterion the environmental impact of the in-use technologies for power production and to develop a methodology based on a statistical approach that detects the cause-effect relationships. A general purpose methodology, based on the integration of LCA and MDA, was then implemented and applied for analysing the technological options provided by the Energy Plan of Basilicata Region (Southern Italy). An inventory analysis of the air pollutants emitted by these technologies was carried out using LCA. The inventory matrices were normalised and, subsequently analysed by Cluster Analysis and Principal Component Analysis. In this way, the initial data were aggregated into statistically homogeneous groups and the principal components were individuated, characterising the relationships between technologies and pollutants. The integration of the two methods allows to improve the informative content of LCA results, broadening its possible fields of application.