Carbon Footprint and Social Impact Assessment of Stationary Batteries in Distribution Grids

The European project STORY demonstrates and evaluates innovative approaches for energy storage systems in the residential and industrial sectors. To assess the environmental impact of storage systems within the project, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is performed for different storage implementation scenarios. In more detail, network development scenarios with and without battery energy storage are compared. Each scenario provides electricity to households and electric vehicles. The electricity consumption is covered by local PV plants and electricity from the grid. Surplus electricity from PV is injected into the power grid. In this paper, we will show the climate impact (so-called carbon footprint) of the battery- systems for the investigated large-scale and demo-scale scenarios and identify the main factors influencing the results. Similar to LCA, Social Life Cycle Assessment (sLCA) incorporates the traditional LCA methodological steps, while having social impacts as a focus. In addition, from the sLCA, the evaluation of large-scale battery storage implementation using appropriate social indicators (e.g. employment, health and safety, prevention of forced and compulsory labour) is presented.