Environmental impacts of a stand-alone photovoltaic system in sub-saharan Africa: A case study in Burkina Faso

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This study aims to evaluate and compare the environmental impacts of stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) systems with storage installed in Burkina Faso using the life cycle assessment (LCA). SimaPro 9.4 software, Ecoinvent 3.7 database, and the ReCiPe 2018 (H) median method were used to assess the environmental impacts. The functional unit considered is “1 kWh of electricity produced in Burkina Faso by a stand-alone PV system”. Four scenarios combining two variables, battery technology (lead-acid and lithium-ion) and end-of-life management (landfill and recycling), were studied to assess 08 environmental indicators. The results show that production and end-of-life management of batteries and PV modules are the main contributors to the environmental impact, with batteries' impact ranging from 73 to 98 % for lead-acid and 50–68 % for lithium-ion batteries. Compared to landfilling, recycling significantly reduces environmental impacts, achieving reductions of 17–77 % for lead-acid batteries (LABs) and 3–99 % for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The comparison between scenarios indicates that the LABs PV system with landfilling generates significantly higher scores across all impact categories than LIBs PV scenarios. Specifically, it shows scores over 10 times higher for human carcinogenic toxicity, 5 times higher for human non-carcinogenic toxicity, and 2 times higher for freshwater ecotoxicity. Despite extending battery lifespan, the sensitivity analysis revealed that landfill PV systems remain the most polluting, while in recycled scenarios, this extension brings them closer to the environmental performance of LIBs PV systems. The use of LIBs in photovoltaic systems is more environmentally friendly than that of LABs, regardless of the end-of-life scenario.