Lifecycle Carbon Emissions and Mitigation Strategies of Electrical Equipment: A Comprehensive Review

Under the national carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, electrical equipment plays a crucial role in energy production, transmission, and end-use systems, making the research on its lifecycle carbon emissions and mitigation strategies particularly significant. Based on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework, this review systematically examines carbon emission characteristics across raw material acquisition, manufacturing, transportation, usage, and end-of-life recycling stages of electrical equipment. The analysis indicates that the manufacturing and usage stages are generally the main contributors to total lifecycle emissions. Moreover, challenges such as incomplete carbon data, inconsistent boundary definitions, and insufficient recycling systems are highlighted. Correspondingly, this review summarizes key mitigation pathways, including low-carbon design and material optimization, low-carbon manufacturing processes, energy-efficient operation supported by intelligent monitoring, and enhanced recycling and remanufacturing practices. Finally, future perspectives are proposed, emphasizing the need to establish unified LCA databases, develop intelligent and data-driven carbon monitoring systems, and strengthen cross-sector collaboration to support the green and low-carbon transformation of electrical equipment industries.