Background analysis of the quality of the energy data to be considered for the European Reference Life Cycle Database (ELCD)

The European Reference Life-Cycle Database (ELCD) has been developed by the European Commission‟s Joint Research Centre (DG JRC) and provides core Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data from front-running EU-level business associations and, where not available, other sources. Within the ELCD, several energy-related data are provided, being energy a major input for almost all the environmental analyses of products or processes. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of LCI and other potential sources to be used as data providers, in order to assure the quality of the ELCD. Therefore, an analysis of the quality of energy data for European markets that are available in 3rd party life cycle databases and from authoritative sources that are, or could be, used to improve the ELCD has been carried out. This work has been carried out by the Energy Systems Analysis (ASE) Unit of CIEMAT (Public Research Centre for Energy, Environment and Technology, Madrid, Spain), through a service contract (Service Contract Number 387533) awarded by the European Commission - Joint Research Centre - Institute for Environment and Sustainability (Tender Number IES/H/2011/01/13/NC).