Eco-environmental, and social impacts of producing electricity with various renewable energy sources

The shift towards renewable energy is crucial for mitigating climate change and reducing dependency on fossil fuels. Exploring the diverse impacts of renewable energy sources is essential to guide future investments and policies. This study comprehensively compares five different renewable energy sources—solar, wind, biomass, hydropower, and pumped storage—used to produce electricity, focusing on their economic, environmental, and social impacts. Economic evaluations are conducted using the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), revealing values of approximately 0.048, 0.030, 0.065, 0.045, and 0.085 €/kWh for the respective sources. Environmental impacts are assessed using the OpenLCA software, which evaluates ten…