Lifecycle Costs and Environmental Impacts of Emerging Clean Energy Systems: A Comparative Review of Green Hydrogen, Advanced Geothermal, and Solid-State Batteries

Abstract

This study analyzes the lifecycle costs and carbon emissions of three emerging clean energy technologies—green hydrogen, advanced geothermal, and solid-state batteries—based on published research findings and policy reports. Data were collected from multiple sources, including Google Scholar, Web of Science, CNKI, and regional government documents, and synthesized to enable a cross-technology comparison. The results indicate that comprehensive lifecycle cost data are still limited, as costs vary across regions and environments, and long-term expenditures such as decommissioning are rarely addressed. Similarly, inconsistencies in the methodologies used to calculate carbon emissions result in significant discrepancies, preventing a reliable comparison of environmental performance across technologies. Among the three systems, green hydrogen exhibits the highest lifecycle costs, suggesting that greater financial support may be required to improve its economic feasibility. In contrast, advanced geothermal and solid-state battery systems show relatively lower costs, though their reported emissions differ substantially due to regional variations in data sources. Overall, this review highlights the need for standardized methodologies and field-based assessments to ensure accurate and comparable evaluations of clean energy systems, thereby providing a more robust foundation for policy design and investment strategies.