Comparative Life Cycle Analysis and Environmental Footprint of Oil Shale vs. Photovoltaic Electricity Generation: Case Study in Jordan

This study aimed to perform a comprehensive evaluation of the life cycle assessment for a current 500MW oil shale power plant installed in the south of Jordan, compared to a proposed PV power plant with the same production capacity. The study was performed using Open LCA software and based on the Ecoinvent 3.7 database. The PV power plant was divided into 5 identical substations, each one has 500MW power capacity with 2.5 GW in total. The design was carried out through specialized software, which showed that each substation could generate 1027108 MWh annually. The LCA study was performed to find the environmental impact for five categories: climate change, ozone depletion, fossil depletion, human toxicity, and particulate matter formation.