Should Photovoltaics Stay at Home? Comparative Life Cycle Environmental Assessment on Roof-Mounted and Ground-Mounted Photovoltaics

Victor Kouloumpis,Anastasia Pavlidou,George Tsinarakis,Antonios Kalogerakis,George Arampatzis

doi:10.3390/su12219120

Abstract

Renewable energy technologies like photovoltaics may be considered an indispensable component of a low-carbon electricity mix, but social acceptance should not be taken for granted. For instance, in Greece there are still claims, especially in rural areas, regarding the land use and the competition against more traditional economic activities such as grazing. An argument in favor of confining to roof-mounted photovoltaic installations is the additional infrastructure requirements for ground-mounted larger-scale photovoltaics. These requirements reduce and could potentially negate their environmental benefits. The aim of this study is to investigate the life cycle environmental impacts of commercial ground-mounted photovoltaic farms and compare them against residential roof-mounted photovoltaic installations. Data were gathered for a 500 kW ground-mounted photovoltaic installation and for five roof-mounted installations of 10 kW capacity, each from the same area at the prefecture of Pella in Northern Greece. An LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) was performed and results show that panel production is the main contributor for both types and that ground-mounted photovoltaics—when no transmission/distribution infrastructure is considered—have lower impacts than the roof-mounted residential photovoltaic installations for all impact categories except terrestrial ecotoxicity. However, when located further than 10.22 km from grid connection, ground-mounted photovoltaics have higher impacts for almost all environmental impact categories.

Highlights

Climate change, pollution, waste management and extreme meteorological phenomena comprise some of the most significant problems, and for this reason, in 2015, the 17 Goals for people, planet and prosperity are part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [1]
Based on the results from the investigation, in cases where the distance between the ground-mounted photovoltaic farm and the grid connection point is more than 10.22 km, the previous argument could be overturned
The results have shown that in both ways, the highest contribution to the environmental burden can be attributed to the production of the photovoltaic panels

Summary

Introduction

Pollution, waste management and extreme meteorological phenomena comprise some of the most significant problems, and for this reason, in 2015, the 17 Goals for people, planet and prosperity are part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development [1]. In Europe [3,4], the total share of renewable energy resources in 2019 reached 35% of the total electricity mix and is significantly increased compared to the respective global shares thanks to the energy transition priorities of the European Union to move to a clean, affordable and reliable Energy System up to 2030. The total installed capacity of photovoltaics in the European Union in 2017 was 106,707 MW [5] In this direction, the main targets set are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at least 40% below 1990 levels, to increase the use of renewable resources so that they can provide at least 32% percent of European energy through the implementation of suitable strategies and projects, and through the use of new technologies and systems [6]. From the end of 2019, the EU environmental policy based on the European Green Deal aims for zero net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 [7]

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