Life‐Cycle Assessment of Solar Charger with Integrated Organic Photovoltaics

Abstract

Organic photovoltaics (OPV) applied in a commercial product comprising a solar charged power bank is subjected to a life cycle assessment (LCA) study. Regular power banks harvest electricity from the grid only. The solar power bank (called HeLi‐on) is however, a power bank that includes a portable OPV panel, enabling the possibility to be charged from the sun, and not only from the grid. In this paper, two well‐established power bank products using amorphous silicon solar panels (a‐Si PV) and a regular power bank without any portable solar panel is compared to HeLi‐on. The environmental impact of the products is quantified with the aim of indicate where eco‐design improvements would make a difference and to point out performance of a portable solar panel depending on the context of use (Denmark and China), realistic disposal scenarios and the recycling relevance particularly concerning metals content.