Ferrara Carmen, Marmiroli Benedetta, Carvalho Maria Leonor, Girardi Pierpaolo
Ricerca Sistema Energetico (RSE) S.p.A., Via Rubattino, n. 54, 20134 Milano, Italy.
Ricerca Sistema Energetico (RSE) S.p.A., Via Rubattino, n. 54, 20134 Milano, Italy.
Sci Total Environ. 2024 Oct 20;948:174846. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174846. Epub 2024 Jul 18.
This study presents a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of photovoltaic (PV) electricity production in Italy based on the composition of the current and future Italian PV scenario. Using detailed and site-specific data, the actual composition of the Italian mix of PV technologies at the end of 2022 and those expected for 2030 were defined. A new LCA modelling of the most relevant PV technologies was carried out using updated and reliable inventory data. The impact assessment was performed adopting the most relevant impact categories of Environmental Footprint Method v. 3.1. The environmental profiles of the two Italian PV scenarios (PV Scenario_2021 and PV Scenario_2030) analysed in this study were compared with that of the PV scenario achievable using unaltered Ecoinvent v 3.9.1 datasets specific to Italian. The obtained results highlighted that the use of Ecoinvent datasets and hypothesis entails a significant overestimation of the environmental impacts of photovoltaic electricity production in Italy; showing higher impacts ranging from 70 % to 30 % (depending on the impact category considered) and the main key factors affecting the results were investigated. However, the wide impacts gaps pointed out the importance of conducting representative LCA studies of the fast-growing and evolving PV context of the countries, to provide reliable impact results to policy makers and to other researchers and who need to include the PV electricity generation in their studies. Furthermore, the environmental performance analysis of the two Italian PV scenarios highlighted the higher sustainability of the PV electricity production in the next years (PV Scenario_2030) for all considered impact categories (except for land use). This improvement can be primarily attributed to the higher annual energy yield and the greater utilization of high-efficiency PV technologies, along with the expansion of ground-mounted PV plants.
本研究基于意大利当前和未来光伏情景的构成，对意大利光伏发电进行了生命周期评估（LCA）。利用详细的特定地点数据，确定了2022年底意大利光伏技术组合的实际构成以及2030年预期的构成。使用更新且可靠的清单数据，对最相关的光伏技术进行了新的LCA建模。采用环境足迹方法v. 3.1中最相关的影响类别进行影响评估。将本研究中分析的两种意大利光伏情景（光伏情景_2021和光伏情景_2030）的环境概况与使用未更改的意大利特定Ecoinvent v 3.9.1数据集可实现的光伏情景的环境概况进行了比较。所得结果表明，使用Ecoinvent数据集和假设会显著高估意大利光伏发电的环境影响；显示出更高的影响范围为70%至30%（取决于所考虑的影响类别），并对影响结果的主要关键因素进行了调查。然而，巨大的影响差距指出了针对各国快速增长和不断演变的光伏背景开展具有代表性的LCA研究的重要性，以便为政策制定者以及其他需要在其研究中纳入光伏发电的研究人员提供可靠的影响结果。此外，对两种意大利光伏情景的环境绩效分析突出了未来几年（光伏情景_2030）光伏发电在所有考虑的影响类别（土地利用除外）方面更高的可持续性。这种改善主要可归因于更高的年能源产量、高效光伏技术的更多利用以及地面安装光伏电站的扩建。
