State of the art LCA guidelines were applied to identify comparable system boundaries (ILCD, 2010). Both inventories were based on the manufacturing process of the currently manufactured capacitor (personal communication with Alstom Grid), but the inventory was modified to represent the effects of including nanomaterials. Based on experimental prototypes, a nano-composite filler with 4.5% silicate nanoparticles embedded in polypropylene was chosen for analysis (Tanaka et al., 2004). This material has improved dielectric breakdown voltages, allowing smallerdistances between the electrodes in each capacitor layer, andconsequently a higher power supply for the same size of capacitor(Takala et al., 2010). This allows a smaller amount of capacitors in a capacitor bank to provide the same services as a larger amount with conventional dielectric materials. Based on prestudies, an 18% reduction in the number of capacitors needed to supply the specified reactive power was assumed (Takala et al., 2010). The reduced material needs influence the whole life cycle from raw materials supply to manufacturing, transport and waste recycling.