A life cycle assessment of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells

Lunardi, Marina Monteiro; Ho‐Baillie, Anita; Alvarez-Gaitan, Juan Pablo; Moore, Stephen; Corkish, Richard

doi:10.1002/pip.2877

Cited by 82 publications

(61 citation statements)

References 55 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For energy applications, and particularly when evaluating photovoltaic technologies, two Functional Units (FU), have been most commonly used: 1kWh of produced electricity [17,21], or 1 m 2 of solar module [16,18], or 1 cm 2 of film used to fabricate a solar cell [15]. Complementary to standard LCA studies, different approaches for energy analysis of PV technologies require additional harmonization of the definition of energy-related parameters such as embedded energy in materials or devices (also called cumulative energy demand, CED), energy pay back time (EPBT), levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) or energy return on energy investment (EROI).…”

Section: A Difficult Balance From a Life Cycle Assessment Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this article, the most standard approach has been used to select references and if necessary to convert to units (FU or energy-related) which allows for a fair comparison of results [175]. Several LCA studies have been published recently, starting with the historical review of perovskite solar cell technology by Jung et alThis review included some information about environmental impacts [23], some focused on a specific process or device architecture [15,17], others on comparison between lead or lead-free alternatives [18], and more recently with a focus on tandem devices [20,21,27].…”

Section: A Difficult Balance From a Life Cycle Assessment Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Environmental impacts of the use of Au or Ag metals for electrodes is high when calculated by the Life Cycle Assessment either in perovskite solar cells [177], or in silicon/perovskite tandem solar cells [21] in the Global Warming Potential, Human Toxicity and Freshwater Ecotoxicity categories. This adds to the main recommendation about avoiding spiro-OMeTAD, mentioned in the previous section.…”

Section: A Difficult Balance From a Life Cycle Assessment Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because of the importance of industrial approaches to Si/perovskite tandem (record efficiencies and possible commercialization by Oxford PV Ltd) the LCA analysis by Monteiro et al should be emphasized, and can be summarized by the EPBT data and comments that PCE assumed for the tandem >20% in all scenarios, with PR=0.75 and insolation assumed to be 1700 kWh m −2 per year, with EPBT values ranging between 1.3 years for perovskite/Si(p-n) tandem (scenario 1) and 1.7 years for perovskite/Si (HIT) (scenario 2) with the following assumptions: perovskite 1 year lifetime, scenario 1: becomes opaque not allowing Si to work, scenario 2 becomes transparent and conductive allowing Si to work efficiently [21]. These results are very similar to the EPBT calculated by Espinosa et al [17], between 1.1 and 1.5 years for the productions routes using solution phase deposition described by You et al [176] and vapour phase deposition described by Liu et al [85]), respectively, for a single junction perovskite solar cell, assuming a PCE=10% at module level, although the published PCE for small devices are larger (11.5% and 15.4%), with PR=0.8 and insolation 1700 kWh m −2 per year.…”

Section: A Difficult Balance From a Life Cycle Assessment Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a standardized methodology which provides detailed analysis of the inventory of materials, energy inputs and subprocesses for the whole cycle of fabrication, operational phase (use) and end-of-life of devices. The effort by the scientific community to provide LCA studies for different processing routes of PSCs has increased and some general consensus is arising regarding the main recommendations for a sustainable production of methylammonium based perovskite solar cells or other devices [15][16][17]; some with more focus on the lead toxicity problems [18,19]; others focusing on the most recent tandem approaches [20,21]. Finally, economic cost analysis and first calculations of envisaged levelized cost of electricity for perovskite photovoltaic technology are being published very recently [22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

The balance between efficiency, stability and environmental impacts in perovskite solar cells: a review

Urbina

2020

J. Phys. Energy

105

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Photovoltaic technology is progressing very fast, both in a new installed capacity, now reaching a total of more than 400 GW worldwide, and in a big research effort to develop more efficient and sustainable technologies. Organic and hybrid solar cells have been pointed out as a technological breakthrough due to their potential for low economical cost and low environmental impact; but despite impressive laboratory progress, the market is still beyond reach for these technologies, especially for perovskitebased technology. In this review, the historical evolution and relationship of efficiency and stability is addressed, including Life Cycle Assessment studies which provide a quantitative evaluation of environmental impacts in several categories, such as human health or freshwater ecotoxicity, with special focus on lead toxicity. The main conclusion is that there is no unsurmountable barrier for the massive deployment of photovoltaic systems with perovskite solar modules, if the stability is extended to lifetimes similar to technologies already in the market. The results of this review provide some recommendations mainly focused on the best options for improved stability (avoiding mainly moisture and oxygen degradation) by using metal oxides, ternary or quaternary cations, or the novel 2D/3D approach, and the encapsulation effort which should also take into account the recyclability of the materials and the low environmental impact processes for up-scaled industrial production. Research guidelines should take into account the end-of-life of the devices and cleaner routes for production avoiding toxic solvents.

show abstract

Section: A Difficult Balance From a Life Cycle Assessment Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Difficult Balance From a Life Cycle Assessment Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Difficult Balance From a Life Cycle Assessment Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Difficult Balance From a Life Cycle Assessment Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The balance between efficiency, stability and environmental impacts in perovskite solar cells: a review

Urbina

2020

J. Phys. Energy

105

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells: Marriage of Convenience or True Love Story? – An Overview

Werner

Niesen

Ballif

2017

Adv Materials Inter

373

316

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells have reached efficiencies above 25% in just about three years of development, mostly driven by the rapid progress made in the perovskite solar cell research field. This review aims to give an overview of the achievements made in this timeframe toward the goal of developing high‐efficiency perovskite/silicon tandem cells with sufficiently large area and long lifetime to be commercially interesting. The developments that led to the recent progress in tandem cell efficiency, as well as the factors currently still limiting their performance, including parasitic absorption, reflection losses, and the nonideal perovskite absorber layer bandgap, are discussed. Based on this discussion, guidelines for future developments are given. In addition, crucial aspects to enable the commercialization of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells are reviewed, such as device stability and upscaling. Finally, economic considerations show how the number of steps and/or the costs associated to these steps for realizing the perovskite cell must be kept to a minimum to keep up with progress in the field of silicon photovoltaics.

show abstract

Comparison of Perovskite Solar Cells with other Photovoltaics Technologies from the Point of View of Life Cycle Assessment

Vidal

Alberola-Borràs

Sánchez-Pantoja

et al. 2021

Adv Energy and Sustain Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Earth receives from the sun %432 EJ in 1 h, out of which 18 EJ per hour are reflected off from the surface and lost into space. [1] Despite the fact that this amount of energy is available to be converted to usable energy by photovoltaics (PVs), nowadays, this power technology is just converting about 4 EJ per year. [2] Converting all this incident energy would suppose nearly 158 000 EJ per year, which greatly exceeds the 585 EJ of primary energy (PE) consumed in 2017. [3] This fact makes solar power technologies converting directly incident sunlight into usable electrical energy, hence, PVs, powerful candidates to ease the environmental issues derived from the present system of energy production. However, the potential of PV to provide electricity to our societies in a postcarbon energy system is limited by a Shockley-Queisser limit of about 33%, [4] together with land and sources availability.There are several PV technologies, each with a different degree of maturity. Crystalline Si PVs represent the most deployed type with 95% of the market share, 75% in monocrystalline silicon (Mono-Si), with a growing share, and 20% for multicrystalline silicon (Multi-Si), with a continuously declining share. [5] Mono-Si and Multi-Si present moderately high operating efficiencies between 20% and 22%, a deep industrial implementation constructed in parallel with the development of the electronic industry and low toxicity. [6] Another key advantage of this technology in a large production scenario is that it can be entirely produced with relatively abundant materials. [7] The only argument against crystalline Si as the ideal PV material is the chemistries required for purification, reduction, and crystallization of pure silicon from sand, which are highly energy

show abstract

A life cycle assessment of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells

Cited by 82 publications

References 55 publications

The balance between efficiency, stability and environmental impacts in perovskite solar cells: a review

The balance between efficiency, stability and environmental impacts in perovskite solar cells: a review

Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells: Marriage of Convenience or True Love Story? – An Overview

Comparison of Perovskite Solar Cells with other Photovoltaics Technologies from the Point of View of Life Cycle Assessment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About