Table 4.

Conventional LCA of solar and solar hybrid ORC plants.

ORC Heat Source	LCA FU	Boundary	Inventory Database	LCIA Method	Tool/Software	Remark	Reference(s)
Solar ORC plant	1 kWh of primary energy production	Cradle to gate	Literature data and Ecoinvent	IMPACT 2002+; IPCC 2013 GWP 100a; cumulative energy demand (CED)	SimaPro	The study identified that the solar multiple (SM) is an important parameter that must be carefully selected to achieve an environmentally benign solar-ORC plant. It was demonstrated specifically that doubling the solar field area from 50 m2 to 100 m2 can reduce the environmental impact from 140 μPt/kWh to 104 μPt/kWh.	(Cioccolanti et al., 2019)
Solar-Geothermal ORC plant	1 year of electrical and thermal energy production	Cradle to gate	Ecoinvent	CML 2011 baseline	SimaPro	The study demonstrated that the exploitation of solar-geothermal energy sources by ORC plants is an environmentally-favorable solution in the context of sustainable development.	(Ruzzenenti et al., 2014)
Solar ORC integrated with an ammonia synthesis plant	1.83 kWh of electricity or 1 kg of ammonia production	Cradle to grave	Life plant/literature data; Ecoinvent	CIA-LP and ReCiPe 2016 Endpoint (H)	SimaPro	Low environmental impacts were obtained generally for the integrated plant, specifically at about 0.69 CO2-eq/kg of ammonia, based on GWP midpoint, and about 0.0000817 pt based on endpoint human health indicator.	(S. Liu et al., 2021)