Energy & Buildings 217 (2020) 109940 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Energy & Buildings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enbuild Life cycle assessment of integrated thermal energy storage systems in buildings: A case study in Canada Huseyin Karasu ∗ , Ibrahim Dincer Clean Energy Research Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, Ontario L1H 7K4, Canada a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 16 June 2019 Revised 18 January 2020 Accepted 10 March 2020 Keywords: Life cycle assessment Drake Landing Solar Community Borehole thermal energy storage Buildings Global warming Environmental impact a b s t r a c t In this study, a cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) of integrated borehole type thermal energy storage (TES) systems in buildings is performed, and the Drake Landing Solar Community (DLSC) in Oko- toks, Alberta, Canada is selected for a case study. The results are presented comparatively with a con- ventional Canadian house. The DLSC is considered a successfully developed community energy system integrated with the solar and TES systems. Consequently, the DLSC meets more than 90% of the space heating needs of each home from solar energy and resulting in less reliance on fossil fuels. The present study, therefore, investigates the environmental impact of the Drake Landing houses. The results of this study are illustrated in 10 different impact categories namely; acidification potential, global warming po- tential, eutrophication potential, abiotic depletion potential, ozone layer depletion potential, human toxi- city potential, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity potential, terrestrial ecotoxicity potential, ionising radiation, and photochemical oxidation potential. The present analyses show that a Drake Landing house is found to have much lower environmental impacts than a conventional Canadian house in all studied impact categories. While a conventional Canadian house (145.4 m 2 ) produces 6.34 tonnes of CO 2 emissions per year, a Drake Landing house produces only 1.91 tonnes of CO 2 emissions per year, which is a reduction of nearly 4.5 tonnes of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per home per year. © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Energy need and environmental concerns are like two critical puzzles for humanity and two extremely important issues that world faces these days. After the industrial revolution, develop- ments in industry and increase in world’s population have led to a huge increase in energy demand and depletion of natural resources [1]. Many researches are focused on these issues to offer solutions. Therefore, new advanced technologies can provide environmental quality, efficiency and energy security. In this context, TES is con- sidered a rewarding technology that is encouraged to reduce en- ergy consumption and to lower depletion of natural resources [2– 5]. TES can achieve any mismatch between energy generation and use in terms of time, temperature, power or site. The building sector accounts nearly 29% of the total secondary energy use in Canada [6], and 27% of the total secondary energy use in the world [7]. Hence, lowering environmental impacts of buildings due to fossil fuels use for space heating and energy use is ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: huseyin.karasu@ontariotechu.net (H. Karasu), ibrahim.dincer@uoit.ca (I. Dincer). essential. Switching to renewable energy storage systems and their integration in buildings is crucial. Numerous types of energy stor- age systems are developed and in use nowadays [8]. In the published literature, there are many studies conducted regarding thermal energy storage for space heating in buildings. Heier et al. [9] conducted a study giving a review of thermal space heating using TES technologies with a focus on storage technology and building types. The results of the study showed that there are many available TES technologies currently for both residential and commercial buildings. The study concluded that there are still gaps in the literature to be filled for the feasibility of TES technologies for buildings. Rad and Fung [10] performed a study presenting a model for a solar community with a TES system for both space heating and cooling purposes. Their paper introduces a strategic design for the detection of heat from thermally powered cooling machinery, i.e., chillers for the absorption and the transmission to a low-grade thermal heat boiler scheme during the cooling season. During the heating seasons, the heat is collected and transferred to a primary high-temperature thermal borehole storage system used in cooling and shoulder seasons to store solar thermal energy. The suggested design is a feasible option for a society with an inte- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.109940 0378-7788/© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.