Describing Diffusion Scenarios for Low-Carbon Products Using Life Cycle Simulation

Abstract

Various low-carbon products, such as photovoltaic (PV) panels, have been diffused to reduce CO₂ emissions across the world. When we consider future uncertainties and product lifetimes, the question arises of how such products will reduce regional CO₂ emissions over a longer period of time (e.g., 30 years). With the aim to answer this question, we describe scenarios to analyze the relationship among various social changes in the future (e.g., energy policy), the amount of low-carbon products diffused in a region, and the resulting CO₂ emissions throughout the life cycle of the products. In this paper, we develop an integrated model for estimating the diffusion of low-carbon products and the CO₂ emissions due to product diffusion using life cycle simulation. In a case study, we described several PV diffusion scenarios toward 2045 for the Tokyo area, in which we evaluated PV installation capacity and the CO₂ emissions caused by PV diffusion. The results showed that the ownership rate of PV in 2045 would account for 36.8–53.6% of households. In addition, it was revealed that the extension of product lifetime provides the opportunity to reuse secondhand PV, causing less CO₂ emissions than other scenarios.