Update of environmental indicators and energy payback time of CdTe PV systems in Europe

Abstract

Thin film technologies undergo rapid developments for increasing the module efficiencies and improving production technologies or recycling processes which affect the environmental profile of PV power generation and Energy Payback Time (EPBT). Therefore, especially for the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of product systems with short development cycles, the environmental profiles need to be frequently updated to ensure the representativeness and validity of the environmental assessment. The update of LCA results in this paper demonstrates that considerable improvements were reached in the environmental profile of CdTe PV power and EPBT over the last four years. Depending on the location of installation in Europe, the corresponding Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions of PV power for ground mounted power plants are between 19 and 30?g CO2-equiv./kWh and between 0.7 and 1.1 years in terms of EBPT. Furthermore, for the first time, the environmental impacts due to an already applied recycling procedure of CdTe modules and it's relative contribution to the CdTe PV life cycle has been investigated. This paper presents the main approach, results and outcomes of the study

A Comparative Analysis of Energy Costs of Photovoltaic, Solar Thermal, and Wind Electricity Generation Technologies

“…[12] 1997 PV Japan Process [13] 1997 PV US Process [14] 2000 PV Unspecified Process [15] 2001 PV Europe Process [16] 2001 PV US Process [17] 2002 PV India Process [18] 2002 PV Europe Process [19] 2004 PV Europe Process [20] 2004 PV India Process [21] 2004 PV Europe Process [22] 2005 PV Europe Process [23] 2006 PV US Process [24] 2006 PV Europe Process [25] 2006 PV US Process [26] 2006 PV Singapore Process [27] 2007 PV Europe Process [28] 2007 PV US Process [29] 2007 PV Europe Process [30] 2008 PV China Process [31] 2008 PV Many Process [32] 2009 PV Europe Process [33] 2009 PV US Process [34] 2009 PV Europe Process [6] 2010 PV US/Canada Process [35] 2010 PV US Hybrid [36] 2010 PV China/Japan Process [37] 2011 PV Europe Process [38] 2011 PV Europe Process [39] 1990 CSP US I-O [40] 1999 CSP Australia Hybrid [41] 2002 CSP Australia Hybrid [42] 2008 CSP Europe Process [43] 2011 CSP US Hybrid [44] 2011 CSP Europe Process [45] 2011 CSP Chile Process [46] 2011 CSP China Process …”

Photovoltaic Conversion: Outlook at the Crossroads Between Technological Challenges and Eco-Strategic Issues

“…Data collected in 2009 for systems integrated into roofs in southern Europe indicate an EPBT of nearly 1.75 years for systems that use silicon cells, except for silicon ribbon, which is estimated at just over one year. Thin film technologies remain effective with nearly 0.7 years for cadmium telluride systems (EPIA/Greenpeace, 2011), which was adjusted to 0.7 to 1.1 years by the Held team from Germany (Held & Ilg, 2011). Preliminary results related to commercial applications for solar concentrators present an EPBT of 0.8 to 1.9 years (Wild-Scholten et al, 2010).…”

“…Concerning the thin layer technology and, more specifically, the cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology, the small amount of data available relies on a certain number of parameters such as the geographic location of the facility, the conditions at the site of the installation and, certainly, the type of databases used. The information about the recycling procedures has a particular impact on the calculation, as for all of the technologies, but the recycling process is in the experimental stage since the CdTe market is still relatively young (Held & Ilg, 2011). From 18 to 20 g CO 2 -eq/kWh (Fthenakis & Kim, 2005;Fthenakis, 2009) the estimates are currently being revised slightly upwards (Held & Ilg, 2011).…”

“…The information about the recycling procedures has a particular impact on the calculation, as for all of the technologies, but the recycling process is in the experimental stage since the CdTe market is still relatively young (Held & Ilg, 2011). From 18 to 20 g CO 2 -eq/kWh (Fthenakis & Kim, 2005;Fthenakis, 2009) the estimates are currently being revised slightly upwards (Held & Ilg, 2011). The autonomous PV systems include, in their calculations, the emissions generated by the storage batteries and eventually those caused by the diesel generators integrated in most of the hybrid systems.…”

“…It is essential to point out that the GHG emission estimates for PV systems are not absolute since they are subject to a certain number of constraints, particularly the quality of the information provided by the manufacturers involved throughout the life cycle. Thus, the estimates are subject to future revisions as are the EPBT and ERF calculations (Reich et al, 2011;Held & Ilg, 2011). With respect to the direct emissions of the silicon industry, three critical phases are identified: the development of metallurgical-grade silicon from silica, its transformation into solar-grade silicon and the development of a structure and framework in the form of panels.…”