Abstract
Environmental impacts and the effects of climate change are becoming ever higher as the energy demand is growing, and the high dependence on fossil fuels to supply global energy needs is unquestionable. For this reason, it is necessary to increase the global percentage of renewable energy (ODS 7, target 7.2), promote access to research, technology and investments in clean energy (ODS 7, target 7.4) and integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning (ODS 13, target 13.2). In this sense, ocean energy has a relevant role, but it is necessary to identify the environmental effects it may generate. According to the later, the aim of this research is to evaluate the environmental impacts of a wave energy power plant located in Mutriku, Spain, with a Life Cycle Assessment approach. The results demonstrate that the Construction stage presents the highest environmental impacts, which reach 86.6% in climate change due to the high raw materials consumed, while energy generation is the stage with the lower environmental impacts, with 5.5% in the climate change category. For the end-of-life stage a sensitivity analysis was performed, showing that high recycling rates for all the metallic materials is not always resulting in better performance. It is concluded that it is important to mitigate the environmental impacts in the Construction stage and in the End-of-Life stage.