Method for Calculating the Uncertainty range of Avoided Primary Energy Consumption and Environmental Impact applied to Data Analysis Software Services and Solar Electricity
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The absolute and avoided primary energy consumption (PEC) of Software (SW) services is getting more attention. However, there is no commonly agreed bottom-up methodology for calculation of the total PEC of SW services. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a common denominator for most existing methodologies. The purpose is to test a new simplified methodology which includes the uncertainty and sensitivity. The new methodology is applied to two illustrative cases: data analysis SW and electricity production. The baseline results for data analysis SW show that the uncertainty will be quite high at around 30% and the most sensitive parameters are the production of electricity, the amount of data transfer and the production of the end-user device. Moreover - the data bytes transferred from the end-user device per iteration, the PEC per byte data transfer and the PEC of the production of the end-user device used to access the SW - contribute most to the total uncertainty. Regarding solar electricity replaced by a proportionate electricity mix, the avoided carbon emissions in China from 2021 to 2023 were 80±36 million tonnes. Intermediate suppliers to the solar electricity production systems can claim to have contributed to the avoided emissions according to their contribution ratio.
Author: Anders S. G. Andrae
Institution: Huawei Technologies (Sweden)
Language: English
Topic: Green IT and Sustainability
Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4406471350