I was curious about total life cycle CO2 output and found an study in Nature.
It looks like:
- Hydropower + Bioenergy -> 100 gCO2eq kWh−1
- Traditional fossil fuels -> 78–110 gCO2eq kWh−1
- Nuclear, Wind and Solar -> 3.5–12 gCO2eq kWh−1
It looks like:
- Hydropower + Bioenergy -> 100 gCO2eq kWh−1
- Traditional fossil fuels -> 78–110 gCO2eq kWh−1
- Nuclear, Wind and Solar -> 3.5–12 gCO2eq kWh−1
So it appears fossil fuels take ten times more energy to run over a lifetime. Less than I expected but still bad