IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v164y2021icp556-565.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Third generation of photovoltaic panels: A life cycle assessment

Author

Listed:
  • Krebs-Moberg, Miles
  • Pitz, Mandy
  • Dorsette, Tiara L.
  • Gheewala, Shabbir H.

Abstract

This study analyzed the impacts from multi-crystalline silicon (m-Si), organic thin-film (OPV), and perovskite thin-film (PSC) panels over each products’ lifetime using a cradle-to-grave system model. The rate of panel installation each year was modeled to account for efficiency, functional lifetime, and degradation. Landfill and recycling scenarios were used to compare end-of-life impacts and the overall environmental impacts were determined using life cycle impact assessment at the midpoint and endpoint levels. Impact calculations revealed that the production and use of m-Si panels resulted in the worst impacts for all categories. OPV panels produced drastically lower impacts comparatively, with PSC designs falling at mid-range. Recycling lowered the impacts for all module types and showed the largest decrease in the impacts of m-Si panels. Although moderately sensitive to the energy production mix, the results can be applied to other regions for the comparison between panel types.

Suggested Citation

  • Krebs-Moberg, Miles & Pitz, Mandy & Dorsette, Tiara L. & Gheewala, Shabbir H., 2021. "Third generation of photovoltaic panels: A life cycle assessment," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 556-565.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:164:y:2021:i:c:p:556-565
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.09.054
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148120314798
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2020.09.054?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Das, Utpal Kumar & Tey, Kok Soon & Seyedmahmoudian, Mehdi & Mekhilef, Saad & Idris, Moh Yamani Idna & Van Deventer, Willem & Horan, Bend & Stojcevski, Alex, 2018. "Forecasting of photovoltaic power generation and model optimization: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 912-928.
    2. Lei Meng & Jingbi You & Yang Yang, 2018. "Addressing the stability issue of perovskite solar cells for commercial applications," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-4, December.
    3. Annick Anctil & Vasilis Fthenakis, 2012. "Life Cycle Assessment of Organic Photovoltaics," Chapters, in: Vasilis Fthenakis (ed.), Third Generation Photovoltaics, IntechOpen.
    4. Xun Li & Fei Zhang & Haiying He & Joseph J. Berry & Kai Zhu & Tao Xu, 2020. "On-device lead sequestration for perovskite solar cells," Nature, Nature, vol. 578(7796), pages 555-558, February.
    5. Eskew, John & Ratledge, Meredith & Wallace, Michael & Gheewala, Shabbir H. & Rakkwamsuk, Pattana, 2018. "An environmental Life Cycle Assessment of rooftop solar in Bangkok, Thailand," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 781-792.
    6. Hou, Guofu & Sun, Honghang & Jiang, Ziying & Pan, Ziqiang & Wang, Yibo & Zhang, Xiaodan & Zhao, Ying & Yao, Qiang, 2016. "Life cycle assessment of grid-connected photovoltaic power generation from crystalline silicon solar modules in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 882-890.
    7. Junming Li & Hai-Lei Cao & Wen-Bin Jiao & Qiong Wang & Mingdeng Wei & Irene Cantone & Jian Lü & Antonio Abate, 2020. "Biological impact of lead from halide perovskites reveals the risk of introducing a safe threshold," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-5, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Li, Qingxiang & Monticelli, Carol & Zanelli, Alessandra, 2022. "Life cycle assessment of organic solar cells and perovskite solar cells with graphene transparent electrodes," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 906-917.
    2. Özdemir, Samed & Yavuzdoğan, Ahmet & Bilgilioğlu, Burhan Baha & Akbulut, Zeynep, 2023. "SPAN: An open-source plugin for photovoltaic potential estimation of individual roof segments using point cloud data," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    3. Alizadeh, Sadegh & Avami, Akram, 2021. "Development of a framework for the sustainability evaluation of renewable and fossil fuel power plants using integrated LCA-emergy analysis: A case study in Iran," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1548-1564.
    4. Violeta Motuzienė & Kęstutis Čiuprinskas & Artur Rogoža & Vilūnė Lapinskienė, 2022. "A Review of the Life Cycle Analysis Results for Different Energy Conversion Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-26, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mehedi, Tanveer Hassan & Gemechu, Eskinder & Kumar, Amit, 2022. "Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions and energy footprints of utility-scale solar energy systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    2. Qi, Xiaoyan & Yao, Xilong & Guo, Pibin & Han, Yunfei & Liu, Lin, 2024. "Applying life cycle assessment to investigate the environmental impacts of a PV–CSP hybrid system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    3. Junedi, M.M. & Ludin, N.A. & Hamid, N.H. & Kathleen, P.R. & Hasila, J. & Ahmad Affandi, N.A., 2022. "Environmental and economic performance assessment of integrated conventional solar photovoltaic and agrophotovoltaic systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    4. Vincenzo Muteri & Maurizio Cellura & Domenico Curto & Vincenzo Franzitta & Sonia Longo & Marina Mistretta & Maria Laura Parisi, 2020. "Review on Life Cycle Assessment of Solar Photovoltaic Panels," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-38, January.
    5. Krexner, T. & Bauer, A. & Gronauer, A. & Mikovits, C. & Schmidt, J. & Kral, I., 2024. "Environmental life cycle assessment of a stilted and vertical bifacial crop-based agrivoltaic multi land-use system and comparison with a mono land-use of agricultural land," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    6. Verdone, Alessio & Scardapane, Simone & Panella, Massimo, 2024. "Explainable Spatio-Temporal Graph Neural Networks for multi-site photovoltaic energy production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 353(PB).
    7. Yu, Kunjie & Liang, J.J. & Qu, B.Y. & Cheng, Zhiping & Wang, Heshan, 2018. "Multiple learning backtracking search algorithm for estimating parameters of photovoltaic models," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 408-422.
    8. Javier López Gómez & Ana Ogando Martínez & Francisco Troncoso Pastoriza & Lara Febrero Garrido & Enrique Granada Álvarez & José Antonio Orosa García, 2020. "Photovoltaic Power Prediction Using Artificial Neural Networks and Numerical Weather Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-18, December.
    9. Ryu, Jun & Bahadur, Jitendra & Hayase, Shuzi & Jeong, Sang Mun & Kang, Dong-Won, 2023. "Efficient and stable energy conversion using 2D/3D mixed Sn-perovskite photovoltaics with antisolvent engineering," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(PB).
    10. Ludin, Norasikin Ahmad & Mustafa, Nur Ifthitah & Hanafiah, Marlia M. & Ibrahim, Mohd Adib & Asri Mat Teridi, Mohd & Sepeai, Suhaila & Zaharim, Azami & Sopian, Kamaruzzaman, 2018. "Prospects of life cycle assessment of renewable energy from solar photovoltaic technologies: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 11-28.
    11. Zhang, Xiaoyue & Huang, Guohe & Liu, Lirong & Li, Kailong, 2022. "Development of a stochastic multistage lifecycle programming model for electric power system planning – A case study for the Province of Saskatchewan, Canada," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    12. Margarete Afonso de Sousa Guilhon Araujo & Soraida Aguilar & Reinaldo Castro Souza & Fernando Luiz Cyrino Oliveira, 2024. "Global Horizontal Irradiance in Brazil: A Comparative Study of Reanalysis Datasets with Ground-Based Data," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-25, October.
    13. Xiao, Zenan & Huang, Xiaoqiao & Liu, Jun & Li, Chengli & Tai, Yonghang, 2023. "A novel method based on time series ensemble model for hourly photovoltaic power prediction," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    14. Victor Kouloumpis & Antonios Kalogerakis & Anastasia Pavlidou & George Tsinarakis & George Arampatzis, 2020. "Should Photovoltaics Stay at Home? Comparative Life Cycle Environmental Assessment on Roof-Mounted and Ground-Mounted Photovoltaics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-15, November.
    15. Wang, Xiaoyang & Sun, Yunlin & Luo, Duo & Peng, Jinqing, 2022. "Comparative study of machine learning approaches for predicting short-term photovoltaic power output based on weather type classification," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    16. Huxley, O.T. & Taylor, J. & Everard, A. & Briggs, J. & Tilley, K. & Harwood, J. & Buckley, A., 2022. "The uncertainties involved in measuring national solar photovoltaic electricity generation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    17. Bonou, Alexandra & Laurent, Alexis & Olsen, Stig I., 2016. "Life cycle assessment of onshore and offshore wind energy-from theory to application," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 327-337.
    18. Seyed Mahdi Miraftabzadeh & Cristian Giovanni Colombo & Michela Longo & Federica Foiadelli, 2023. "A Day-Ahead Photovoltaic Power Prediction via Transfer Learning and Deep Neural Networks," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-16, February.
    19. Anh Tuan Phan & Thi Tuyet Hong Vu & Dinh Quang Nguyen & Eleonora Riva Sanseverino & Hang Thi-Thuy Le & Van Cong Bui, 2022. "Data Compensation with Gaussian Processes Regression: Application in Smart Building’s Sensor Network," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-16, December.
    20. Chai, Jiale & Huang, Pei & Sun, Yongjun, 2019. "Investigations of climate change impacts on net-zero energy building lifecycle performance in typical Chinese climate regions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 176-189.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:164:y:2021:i:c:p:556-565. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.