The current state of power generation plants in Mexico from the life cycle assessment point of view

This paper presents the life cycle assessment (LCA) of power generation plants in Mexico from the cradle to the grave. The LCA studies were conducted in the SimaPro Software using a functional unit of 1 kWh. These studies let to know which of the generation technologies used in Mexico is more polluting and at what stage of its life cycle (assembly, use, or disassembly) occurs the pollution. The results obtained show the optimal technologies to be installed in the country. Also, they can be used to propose solutions to reduce the impact of the most polluting technologies. A global ranking with generation technologies based on LCA results was calculated. This ranking shows that the least polluting technology is nuclear power, followed by photovoltaic plants.