Abstract
Astronomical observatories have been identified as substantial contributors to the carbon footprint of astrophysical research. Being part of the collaboration that is currently developing the medium-sized telescopes in the Cherenkov Telescope Array, a ground-based observatory for very-high-energy γ-rays that will comprise 64 telescopes deployed on two sites, we assessed the environmental impacts of one medium-sized telescope on the northern site with a life-cycle assessment. We identified resource use and climate change as having the most significant impacts due to telescope manufacturing and energy consumption during operations. We estimate life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of 2,660 ± 274 tCO2e for the telescope, 44% of which arise from construction, 1% from on-site assembly and commissioning and 55% from operations over 30 yr. The environmental impacts could be reduced by using renewable energy during construction and operations, using fewer electronic components and metal casting and using recycled materials. We propose complementing the project requirements with environmental budgets as an effective measure for impact management and reductions.
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Data availability
All data used for this study are available for download via Zenodo at https://zenodo.org/records/11915488 (ref. 26).
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Acknowledgements
We thank all members of the MSTN and NectarCAM collaborations who supported this study by providing information and data. We are grateful to M. Garczarczyk and O. Ferreira for having granted permission to use their drawings in Supplementary Fig. 1. We also thank X. Loizillon from the company Scalian for valuable discussions. We furthermore thank the French National Centre for Space Studies for enabling the licences for the software SimaPro and ecoinvent databases purchased for updating the LCA of the X-IFU instrument to be shared with this study. Finally, we thank the members of the Labos1point5 research group for valuable discussions and for providing training on the LCA method. This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Brazil (Finance Code 001 to G.d.S.I.). This work was conducted in the context of the CTAO MSTN work package. This work has made use of the Python 2D plotting library matplotlib27.
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G.d.S.I. conducted the LCA, provided a detailed report on which this paper is based and contributed to the writing of the paper. M.B., J.K., P.G. and L.M. designed the study, supervised the LCA and contributed to the writing of the paper. P.J., G.P., A.S. and F.T. served as technical experts for the LCA, provided information to establish the LCI and reviewed the paper.
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Nature Astronomy thanks Nils Thonemann and Isabelle Viole for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Extended data
Extended Data Fig. 1 System boundary of the life cyle assessment.
The end-of-life impacts were excluded from the analysis as decommissioning plans for MSTN are not yet elaborated.
Extended Data Fig. 2 Life cycle impacts of one MSTN for an alternative energy system on La Palma where diesel generators are to 56% replaced by renewable energies.
Panels show normalised (a), weighted (b) and single score life cycle impacts (c). The results correspond to 30 years of operations with an alternative energy system, assuming that a wind powered pumped hydro storage system is implemented in La Palma like the one that exists on the island of El Hierro. We assumed that 56% of the electricity demand that is currently covered by diesel generators on La Palma would be replaced by electricity from this system, which corresponds to the contribution that is currently achieved in El Hierro (see ‘Alternative energy systems for La Palma’ in Supplementary Information for details).
Extended Data Fig. 3 Life cycle impacts of one MSTN for an alternative energy system on La Palma where diesel generators are to 100% replaced by renewable energies.
Panels show normalised (a), weighted (b) and single score life cycle impacts (c). The results correspond to 30 years of operations with an alternative energy system, assuming that a wind powered pumped hydro storage system is implemented in La Palma like the one that exists on the island of El Hierro. We assumed that 100% of the electricity demand that is currently covered by diesel generators on La Palma would be replaced by electricity from this system (see ‘Alternative energy systems for La Palma’ in Supplementary Information for details).
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Supplementary Fig. 1, discussion and Tables 1–12.
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dos Santos Ilha, G., Boix, M., Knödlseder, J. et al. Assessment of the environmental impacts of the Cherenkov Telescope Array mid-sized telescope. Nat Astron (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02326-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02326-4
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