Comparison of life cycle environmental impacts of different perovskite solar cell systems

Abstract

Perovskite solar cells have attracted enormous attention due to their low cost and high power conversion efficiency. However, the use of toxic metals such as lead in the perovskite dye and the disposal methods of perovskite solar cells cause grave concerns about their environmental impacts. Inorganic and lead-free perovskite solar cells have been developed to overcome the disadvantages of lead-based organic perovskite solar cells, a development that involves different materials and manufacturing processes to fabricate different perovskite solar cells. In order to understand and develop an environmentally friendly perovskite solar cell technology, comprehensive environmental impact assessments have been conducted in this study on five typical perovskite solar cells, using an attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. The results indicate that MAPbI3 and FAPbI3 perovskite solar cells have relatively larger environmental impacts than MASnI3−xBrx, CsPbBr3, and MAPbI2Cl perovskite solar cells based on a 1cm2 active area solar cell system, and this result can be explained by the different amounts of organic solvents used in the device fabrication. In addition, gold production makes the largest environmental impact contribution to perovskite solar cell systems, and the substitution of silver or aluminum for gold can significantly reduce the total environmental impact scores. For disposal methods, incineration with energy recovery is found better than landfill.