Purpose

Gasoline-powered lawn mowers and garden equipment are emitting 30 million tons of pollutants yearly in the USA, accounting for a quarter of all non-road gasoline emissions. While the US market is dominated by gasoline-powered lawn mowers, this study offers an assessment of the environmental implication and cost of electrifying the lawn mower industry.

Methods

First, the lifecycle environmental footprint and total cost of ownership of electric-powered mowers are calculated and compared to those of conventional gasoline-powered counterparts, using life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) methodologies. A multi-indicator impact assessment is notably conducted, using the SimaPro software (v8.5), the ReCiPe methodology (H), and the ecoinvent database (v3.4) completed with data from the GREET model for the use phase. Second, an extrapolation model is computed to interpret the results at a national and regional scale, considering the proper energy mix in each US state. The combination of LCA and LCC results, mapped out in a two-dimensional chart, allows a clear visual representation of the environmental and economic trade-offs between the gasoline and electric solutions.

Results and discussion

The findings indicate a reduction of 49.9% and 32.3% of CO₂ emissions, respectively, for push and riding mowers, by using the electric solution instead of the conventional one over their lifecycle. Yet, the total cost of ownership is slightly higher (4.7–10.6%) for the electric solutions, even if the operating costs are lower. And as the initial buying price of the electric solution is more expensive than the gasoline solution of the same category, this could be a real hindrance for consumers who do not systematically consider the overall lifecycle cost when comparing mowers. In this line, the quantification of a suitable financial incentive to support the electrification of the lawn mower market is of utmost importance and appears as a promising line for future work.

Conclusions

The present results are significant in at least two major respects for the potential electrification of lawn mowing equipment. First, they show how an increased market share of electric mowers can contribute to cutting down greenhouse gas emissions. Second, such quantitative results can be useful for decision-makers in businesses and state governments to take appropriate ecological actions, e.g., in the development of adequate financial incentives or green policy to support the energy transition in this sector, and thus tackle global warming.

中文翻译：

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量化美国住宅市场上割草机电气化的环境和经济效益

目的

汽油动力割草机和园艺设备在美国每年排放3000万吨污染物，占所有非道路用汽油排放量的四分之一。尽管美国市场以汽油动力割草机为主导，但本研究评估了割草机行业的电气化对环境的影响和成本。

方法

首先，使用生命周期评估（LCA）和生命周期成本（LCC）方法计算电动割草机的生命周期环境足迹和总拥有成本，并将其与传统汽油动力割草机的成本进行比较。尤其是，使用SimaPro软件（v8.5），ReCiPe方法（H）和ecoinvent数据库（v3.4）进行了多指标影响评估，并使用了来自GREET模型的数据进行了使用阶段。其次，考虑到美国各州的适当能源组合，计算外推模型以在国家和地区范围内解释结果。LCA和LCC结果的组合，以二维图表的形式绘制，可以清晰地直观表示汽油和电动解决方案之间的环境和经济权衡。

结果和讨论

研究结果表明，通过在整个生命周期内使用电动解决方案而不是传统解决方案，推草机和乘骑割草机分别减少了49.9％和32.3％的CO ₂排放量。但是，即使运营成本较低，电气解决方案的总体拥有成本还是会更高（4.7–10.6％）。而且，由于电动解决方案的初始购买价格比同类汽油解决方案的价格昂贵，因此这对于那些在比较割草机时没有系统地考虑整个生命周期成本的消费者而言可能是一个真正的障碍。在这一方面，量化支持草坪割草机市场电气化的适当财政激励措施至关重要，并且似乎是未来工作的有希望的途径。

结论

对于草坪割草设备的潜在电气化，目前的结果至少在两个主要方面具有重要意义。首先，他们展示了电动割草机不断增加的市场份额如何有助于减少温室气体排放。其次，这种定量结果对于企业和州政府的决策者采取适当的生态行动很有用，例如，在制定适当的财政激励措施或绿色政策以支持该部门的能源转型，从而解决全球变暖方面。