Despite increasing attention, the quantification of ecosystem services values in life cycle assessment (LCA) remains nascent relative to other impact categories. In this analysis, we develop and implement a novel approach for quantifying both land requirements and ecosystem services values based on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity framework. Our case study focuses on energy infrastructure in the US portion of the Chihuahuan Desert, a location that has high resource potential for multiple types of energy. The analysis focuses on the land requirements of three types of power plants from a life cycle perspective: natural gas, solar, and wind. The mean land-use intensity for natural gas, solar, and wind electricity is estimated to be 0.27, 0.68, and 0.064 meters squared per Megawatt-hour (m²/MWh), respectively. When considering cumulative land use of the upstream natural gas supply chain, solar breaks even with gas within 10 years. Mean ecosystem services costs are $0.54, $1.39, and $0.12 USD/MWh for electricity generated from natural gas, solar, and wind, respectively. Ecosystem services costs for developments in this region are low relative to levelized costs of electricity (<5%) but are subject to low values compared to other types of ecosystems. Results will vary with regionalized ecosystem services values and different products. Although the results of this study are specific to electricity generation in the Chihuahuan Desert with 2016 as the baseline year, our approach is applicable across regions, scales, and product systems within LCA. This article met the requirements for a gold-silver JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges.

中文翻译：

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量化美国奇瓦瓦沙漠发电的生态系统服务价值：生命周期视角

尽管受到越来越多的关注，但相对于其他影响类别，生命周期评估 (LCA) 中生态系统服务价值的量化仍然处于起步阶段。在此分析中，我们开发并实施了一种基于生态系统经济学和生物多样性框架来量化土地需求和生态系统服务价值的新方法。我们的案例研究侧重于奇瓦瓦沙漠美国部分的能源基础设施，该地区对多种类型的能源具有很高的资源潜力。分析重点从生命周期的角度分析了三种类型发电厂的土地需求：天然气、太阳能和风能。天然气、太阳能和风电的平均土地利用强度估计为 0.27、0.68 和 0.064 平方米/兆瓦时 (m ²/MWh)，分别。在考虑上游天然气供应链的累计土地使用时，太阳能在 10 年内与天然气收支平衡。天然气、太阳能和风能发电的平均生态系统服务成本分别为 0.54 美元、1.39 美元和 0.12 美元/兆瓦时。该地区开发的生态系统服务成本相对于电力的平准化成本 (<5%) 较低，但与其他类型的生态系统相比，其价值较低。结果将因区域化生态系统服务价值和不同产品而异。尽管本研究的结果针对以 2016 年为基准年的奇瓦瓦沙漠发电，但我们的方法适用于 LCA 内的跨区域、跨尺度和跨产品系统。这篇文章满足了金银JIE的要求 http://jie.click/badges 中描述的数据开放徽章。