Abstract

Solar energy is the most abundant nature resources on earth which easily exploitable, clean, long lasting and dependable which make it is desirable to generate electricity compared to other energy resources. However, conventional solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies such as silicon and thin film solar cells may provide significant environmental impacts over their life cycle due to complicated production process of these PV technologies. This make numerous scientists looking forward on the new emerging solar cells including dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Thus, the objective of this research is to analyse a comprehensive environmental impact assessment through life cycle assessment (LCA) from cradle-to-gate approach of this technology in Malaysia. Two environmental indicators were evaluated such as cumulative energy demand (CED) that affect the energy payback time (EPBT), and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The results highlight that DSSC module has EPBT of 3.49 years, CED of 1190.29 MJ/m2 and GHG emissions of 262.38 gCO2eq/kWh which were slightly higher compared to other researchers. Higher energy consumption in module fabrication and panel manufacturing process, lower conversion efficiency (ŋ) and solar irradiation (IR), and used of FTO glass substrate were recognized as main contributors to the results.

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