Evaluation of CO2 emission from dye solar cell panel production process

Abstract

The generation of electricity from solar panel is considered generally to be a zero CO2 emission process. However, closer look at the life cycle of the solar panel system will show that the most significant activity that contribute to CO2 emission is the process energy for producing the solar panel itself where it requires energy input from the fossil power plant. Ideally, the generated CO2 emission during the production process should be much lower and able to compensate the CO2 emission after the operation of the solar panel. This report highlight the amount of CO2 savings after 20 years of solar panel life time with 1643.28 kg of CO2 per m2 of dye solar cell (DSC) panel. Comparison of this third generation PV with the reported data of silicon-based PV, showed that the production process of DSC solar panel emitted approximately 50% lower CO2.