A Sustainability Assessment of Electricity Generation

The sustainability of electricity generation has been assessed by the application of eight key indictors. Literature data has been applied to rank different electricity generating technologies in order of sustainability. Photovoltaics, wind, hydro, geothermal, biomass, natural gas, coal and nuclear power have been compared according to their price, greenhouse gas emissions, efficiency, land use, water use, availability, limitations and social impacts on a per kilowatt hour basis. The relevance of this information to the Australian context is discussed.