A life-cycle analysis on thin-film CdS/CdTe PV modules

Kato, Kazuhiko; Hibino, Takeshi; Komoto, Keiichi; Ihara, S.; Yamamoto, Shuji; Fujihara, Hideaki

doi:10.1016/s0927-0248(00)00293-2

Cited by 89 publications

(44 citation statements)

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“…The CdTe studies were based on R&D data and hypothetical production lines since commercial production of such modules started in 2004 (4)(5)(6). The study of Keoleian and Lewis was based on data from the early operations of UniSolar, Alburn Hills, MI (7).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emissions from Photovoltaic Life Cycles

Fthenakis

Kim

Alsema

2008

Environ. Sci. Technol.

491

258

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Photovoltaic (PV) technologies have shown remarkable progress recently in terms of annual production capacity and life cycle environmental performances, which necessitate timely updates of environmental indicators. Based on PV production data of [2004][2005][2006], this study presents the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, criteria pollutant emissions, and heavy metal emissions from four types of major commercial PV systems: multicrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon, ribbon silicon, and thin-film cadmium telluride. Life-cycle emissions were determined by employing average electricity mixtures in Europe and the United States during the materials and module production for each PV system. Among the current vintage of PV technologies, thin-film cadmium telluride (CdTe) PV emits the least amount of harmful air emissions as it requires the least amount of energy during the module production. However, the differences in the emissions between different PV technologies are very small in comparison to the emissions from conventional energy technologies that PV could displace. As a part of prospective analysis, the effect of PV breeder was investigated. Overall, all PV technologies generate far less life-cycle air emissions per GWh than conventional fossil-fuelbased electricity generation technologies. At least 89% of air emissions associated with electricity generation could be prevented if electricity from photovoltaics displaces electricity from the grid.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emissions from Photovoltaic Life Cycles

Fthenakis

Kim

Alsema

2008

Environ. Sci. Technol.

491

258

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“…MOCVD is a common process for thin film solar cell deposition. It can be used on TCO, buffer layer and absorber layer, such as SnO 2 (Ferekides et al, 2000), CdS (Matsune et al, 2006;Kato et al, 2001;Tsuji et al, 2000), ZnO (Hariskos et al, 2005;Ennaoui et al, 2001) and CdTe (Sharma et al, 2003) etc. There are also other type of CVD for different materials.…”

Section: Other Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanocomposites for Photovoltaic Energy Conversion

Zeng¹,

Gan²

2011

Advances in Composite Materials for Medicine and Nanotechnology

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Induction Composite materialsA composite is a multiphase solid material. It is incorporated by two or more individual materials through physical or chemical methods. The performance of different materials to complement each other will produce synergistic effects (Ivanov et al., 2008;Lu et al., 2010). The overall property of composite materials is better than that of each original material to meet different requirements. These properties include mechanical, electrical, thermal, optical, electrochemical, catalytic behaviors etc. For example (Lu et al., 2010), investigating the synergistic effect of carbon nano-fiber (CNF) and carbon nano-paper on the shape recovery of shape memory polymer (SMP) composite shows that the combination of CNF and carbon nano-paper can improve the thermal and electrical conductivities of the SMP composite, which are much better than each of the components. The individual materials in a composite are referred to as two constituent materials. The two constituent materials are matrix and reinforcement. The matrix material is a frame to support the reinforcement material. So the reinforcement material can keep its relative position. The reinforcement is a functional material which can enhance the matrix properties. Composite metal matrix (substrates) includes aluminum, copper, titanium, magnesium and its alloys and nonmetallic matrix includes synthesized resin, rubber, ceramics, graphite and carbon and so on. Reinforcement mainly includes glass fiber, carbon fiber, boron fiber , aramid fiber, silicon carbide fiber , asbestos fiber, whisker, metal wire and fine grain etc. In order to make use of synergistic effect to improve composite properties, optimum combination of matrix and reinforcement should be chosen. Nanocomposites and their propertiesA nanocomposite is a special composite where one of the phases has one, two or three dimensions less than 100 nanometers (nm, 10 -9 m). A nanocomposite also includes the material where the structures between the different phases that make up the material are in nano-scale (Beecroft & Ober, 1997). In the broadest sense, nanocomposites can also include porous media, colloids, gels and polymers, because in these materials the particles or structures are in nano scale. One nanometer is equivalent to the length to tightly line up www.intechopen.com Advances in Composite Materials for Medicine and Nanotechnology 212 10~100 atoms. Nano-materials include nano-powders, nano-fibers, nano-particles and nanothin films. Their structures are between atom (molecular) size and macro size. Materials in nano-scale have special effects such as quantum size effect, surface effect, small-size effect and macroscopic quantum tunneling effect etc. Quantum size effectQuantum size effect is one of the fundamental physical properties of nano-particles. When the particle size decreases to a nano-scale, the electronic energy levels of the particle atom become discrete and the energy gap becomes wider. This phenomenon is called quantum size effect. This effect does not come into ...

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“…Also a detailed comparison of energy payback times and emissions for different photovoltaic technologies has been carried out where most attention has been devoted to monocrystalline (mono-Si) and multicrystalline (multi-Si) silicon modules since they are the most often used PV technologies with a 93% share of the market in 2006 [9][10][11]. Also thin film technologies of amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), cadmium telluride (CdTe) and copper indium diselenide (CIS) modules have been assessed [12,13]. All thin film technologies show better values of energy payback time and avoided emissions, and despite their lower power conversion efficiency, their main advantage is the use of much less material in the active layer (200-300 mm for multi-Si and mono-Si, compared with around 10 and 1 mm for CIS and CdTe, respectively).…”

Section: Life Cycle Analysis Of Photovoltaic Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For the module inventory, we have included the input material for encapsulation (typically a 0.5 mm layer of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) is considered) and for the frame (Aluminium) a typical value of 280 g/m 2 , typical for thin film modules [12], is assumed.…”

Section: Materials Inventory and Embedded Energy (Per Square Metre Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle analysis of organic photovoltaic technologies

García‐Valverde

Cherni

Urbina

2010

Progress in Photovoltaics

170

130

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Organic solar cells, both in the hybrid dye sensitized technology and in the full organic polymeric technology, are a promising alternative that could supply solar electricity at a cost much lower than other more conventional inorganic photovoltaic technologies. This paper presents a life cycle analysis of the laboratory production of a typical bulk heterojunction organic solar cell and compares this result with those obtained for the industrial production of other photovoltaic technologies. Also a detailed material inventory from raw materials to final photovoltaic module is presented, allowing us to identify potential bottlenecks in a future supply chain for a large industrial output. Even at this initial stage of laboratory production, the energy payback time and CO 2 emission factor for the organic photovoltaic technology is of the same order of other inorganic photovoltaic technologies, demonstrating that there is plenty of room for improvement if the fabrication procedure is optimized and scaled up to an industrial process.

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A life-cycle analysis on thin-film CdS/CdTe PV modules

Cited by 89 publications

References 0 publications

Emissions from Photovoltaic Life Cycles

Emissions from Photovoltaic Life Cycles

Nanocomposites for Photovoltaic Energy Conversion

Life cycle analysis of organic photovoltaic technologies

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