TY - JOUR
T1 - Domestic and overseas manufacturing scenarios of silicon-based photovoltaics
T2 - Life cycle energy and environmental comparative analysis
AU - Yue, Dajun
AU - You, Fengqi
AU - Darling, Seth B.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN). This work was performed, in part, at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, a U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences User Facility under Contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357. We are also grateful to IKE Environmental Technology Co. Ltd. for providing part of the life cycle inventory data from the Chinese Life Cycle Database (CLCD) for the life cycle energy and environmental analysis of the overseas manufacturing scenario.
PY - 2014/7
Y1 - 2014/7
N2 - While life cycle assessment (LCA) has been recognized as an invaluable tool to assess the energy and environmental profiles of a photovoltaic (PV) system, current LCA studies are limited to Europe and North America. However, today most PV modules are outsourced to and manufactured in non-OECD countries (e.g., China), which have a substantially different degree of industrialization and environmental restriction. To investigate this issue, we perform a comparative LCA between domestic and overseas manufacturing scenarios illustrated by three kinds of silicon-based PV technologies, namely mono-crystalline silicon, multi-crystalline silicon and ribbon silicon. We take into account geographic diversity by utilizing localized inventory data for processes and materials. The energy payback time, energy return on investment and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for both scenarios are calculated and analyzed. Compared to the domestic manufacturing scenario, the energy use efficiency is generally 30% lower and the carbon footprint is almost doubled in the overseas manufacturing scenario. Moreover, based on the LCA results, we propose a break-even carbon tariff model for the international trade of silicon-based PV modules, indicating an appropriate carbon tariff in the range of €105-€129/ton CO2.
AB - While life cycle assessment (LCA) has been recognized as an invaluable tool to assess the energy and environmental profiles of a photovoltaic (PV) system, current LCA studies are limited to Europe and North America. However, today most PV modules are outsourced to and manufactured in non-OECD countries (e.g., China), which have a substantially different degree of industrialization and environmental restriction. To investigate this issue, we perform a comparative LCA between domestic and overseas manufacturing scenarios illustrated by three kinds of silicon-based PV technologies, namely mono-crystalline silicon, multi-crystalline silicon and ribbon silicon. We take into account geographic diversity by utilizing localized inventory data for processes and materials. The energy payback time, energy return on investment and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for both scenarios are calculated and analyzed. Compared to the domestic manufacturing scenario, the energy use efficiency is generally 30% lower and the carbon footprint is almost doubled in the overseas manufacturing scenario. Moreover, based on the LCA results, we propose a break-even carbon tariff model for the international trade of silicon-based PV modules, indicating an appropriate carbon tariff in the range of €105-€129/ton CO2.
KW - Life cycle assessment
KW - Manufacturing
KW - Renewable energy
KW - Silicon-based photovoltaics
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U2 - 10.1016/j.solener.2014.04.008
DO - 10.1016/j.solener.2014.04.008
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84901020358
SN - 0038-092X
VL - 105
SP - 669
EP - 678
JO - Solar Energy
JF - Solar Energy
ER -
