Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA, 78758.
School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, 175005, India.
J Environ Manage. 2024 Aug;366:121755. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.121755. Epub 2024 Jul 14.
The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the solar power industry, business, and supply chain for 2019-2021, and installations are falling behind the mission plan. However, Indian PV manufacturers see it as a chance to engage in solar manufacturing to establish a competitive, sustainable, and robust domestic solar industry instead of import-based installations. Given the country's current environmental concerns, green and sustainable local manufacturing is the only viable alternative. By conducting a life cycle assessment (LCA), this study compared the environmental impacts generated by the five most promising photovoltaic technologies-mono-silicon, polysilicon, copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), cadmium telluride (CdTe), and passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) solar modules considering manufacturing in India. The study utilizes the ReCiPe method supported by Ecoinvent 3 databases and Simapro V9.0 software, and the functional unit for the data collection is in 'per square meter', which is later converted to 'per kWh' standard for comparison with the existing studies. The system boundary selected is from cradle to gate. The results demonstrate that cadmium telluride (CdTe) is the best technology for Indian climatic conditions in terms of environmental impact, with a global warming potential of 0.015 kg CO eq/kWh, stratospheric ozone depletion of 5.41E-09 kg CFC11 eq/kWh, human carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic toxicity of 6.67E-04 kg 1,4-DCB/kWh and 1.48E-02 kg 1,4-DCB/kWh, respectively and fine particulate matter formation of 3.96E-05 kg PM 2.5 eq/kWh assuming a lifetime of 25 years for these modules. CIGS follows CdTe in almost every environmental impact category.
新冠疫情对 2019-2021 年的太阳能产业、商业和供应链造成了影响，安装量落后于计划。然而，印度光伏制造商将其视为从事太阳能制造的机会，以建立具有竞争力、可持续和强大的国内太阳能产业，而不是基于进口的安装。考虑到该国目前的环境问题，绿色和可持续的本地制造是唯一可行的选择。本研究通过生命周期评估（LCA），比较了在印度制造的五种最有前途的光伏技术——单晶硅、多晶硅、铜铟镓硒（CIGS）、碲化镉（CdTe）和钝化发射极和背面接触（PERC）太阳能模块所产生的环境影响。该研究使用 ReCiPe 方法，并得到 Ecoinvent 3 数据库和 Simapro V9.0 软件的支持，数据收集的功能单位为“每平方米”，之后转换为“每千瓦时”标准，以便与现有研究进行比较。选择的系统边界是从摇篮到大门。结果表明，就环境影响而言，碲化镉（CdTe）是最适合印度气候条件的技术，其全球变暖潜能值为 0.015 kg CO eq/kWh，平流层臭氧消耗为 5.41E-09 kg CFC11 eq/kWh，人类致癌和非致癌毒性分别为 6.67E-04 kg 1,4-DCB/kWh 和 1.48E-02 kg 1,4-DCB/kWh，以及细颗粒物形成 3.96E-05 kg PM 2.5 eq/kWh，假设这些模块的使用寿命为 25 年。CIGS 在几乎所有环境影响类别中都紧随 CdTe 之后。
