Abstract
Given photovoltaics’ (PVs) constant improvements in terms of material usage and energy efficiency, this paper provides a timely update on their life-cycle energy and environmental performance. Single-crystalline Si (sc-Si), multi-crystalline Si (mc-Si), cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) systems are analysed, considering the actual country of production and adapting the input electricity mix accordingly. Energy pay-back time (EPBT) results for fixed-tilt ground mounted installations range from 0.5 years for CdTe PV at high-irradiation (2300 kWh/(m2·yr)) to 2.8 years for sc-Si PV at low-irradiation (1000 kWh/(m2·yr)), with corresponding quality-adjusted energy return on investment (EROIPE-eq) values ranging from over 60 to ~10. Global warming potential (GWP) per kWhel averages out at ~30 g(CO2-eq), with lower values (down to ~10 g) for CdTe PV at high irradiation, and up to ~80 g for Chinese sc-Si PV at low irradiation. In general, results point to CdTe PV as the best performing technology from an environmental life-cycle perspective, also showing a remarkable improvement for current production modules in comparison with previous generations. Finally, we determined that one-axis tracking installations can improve the environmental profile of PV systems by approximately 10% for most impact metrics.
Highlights
Nowadays, one of the most important environmental challenges is to reduce the use of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, and the associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere
The market in Europe has progressed from 7 GWp in 2014 to around 8 GWp in 2015, while in the US it has grown to 7.3 GWp, Energies 2016, 9, 622; doi:10.3390/en9080622
Technologies is of key importance for long-term energy strategy decisions. This paper provides such an update from both the life cycle assessment (LCA) and net energy analysis (NEA) perspectives for the main commercially relevant large-scale PV technologies as of today [3], namely: single-crystalline Si, multi-crystalline Si, cadmium telluride (CdTe), and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS)
Summary
One of the most important environmental challenges is to reduce the use of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, and the associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the atmosphere. There has been constant improvement in the material and energy efficiency of PV cells and panels [6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]; an up-to-date estimate of the energy and environmental performance of PV technologies is of key importance for long-term energy strategy decisions This paper provides such an update from both the life cycle assessment (LCA) and net energy analysis (NEA) perspectives for the main commercially relevant large-scale PV technologies as of today [3], namely: single-crystalline Si (sc-Si), multi-crystalline Si (mc-Si), CdTe, and CIGS
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