Life Cycle Inventories of photovoltaics
Several activities are ongoing to update the life cycle inventories of photovoltaics. The full project is lead by ESU-services.
Solar radiation is a source for renewable energy. One possible use is the production of electricity in photovoltaic appliances (PV). The aim of this report is to provide up-to-date data for the environmental impacts of electricity production with photovoltaic appliances in Switzerland and Europe. The data for photovoltaics have been updated with financial contribution of the European Photovoltaics Industry Association and the Swiss Federal Authority for Energy.
Data have been collected in this project directly from manufacturers and were provided by other research projects. Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies from different authors are considered for the assessment. The information is used to elaborate a life cycle inventory from cradle to grave for the PV-electricity production in 3kWp plants in the year 2005. The inventory is investigated for single- and multicrystalline cells, ribbon-silicon, amorphous-silicon, CdTe and CIS thin film cells. Environmental impacts i.e. due to the infrastructure for all production stages are also considered in the inventory.
The data are published together with ecoinvent data v2.1. The latest update of photovoltaic data (v2.2+) can be downloaded here.
The project is financed by the following institutions:
- Swiss Federal Office of Energy (Bundesamt für Energie), BfE, CH, Program Photovoltaik
- European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) , BE
Posters and presentations
Rolf Frischknecht, Matthias Stucki, Karin Flury & René Itten (2013) Life cycle assessment of amorphous and micromorphous PV modules.
Jungbluth N., Stucki M., Flury K., Frischknecht R. and Buesser S., 2012, Life Cycle Inventories of Photovoltaics. ESU-services Ltd., Uster, CH.
Stucki M., Frischknecht R. and Flury K. (2012) The Influence of Market Shifts and Technology Developments on the Environmental Impacts of Photovoltaic Electricity in Central Europe. ESU-services Ltd. 27th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition, 24.-28. September 2012, Frankfurt, Germany
Frischknecht R., Stucki M., and Flury K. (2012) Umweltdumping versus Technikexzellenz - Wie Marktveränderungen und Technologieentwicklung die Ökobilanz von Solarstrom beeinflussen. 10. Nationale Photovoltaik-Tagung 2012, 23. März 2012, TRAFO Baden, CH.
Stucki M., Frischknecht R., and Flury K. (2012) Warum Solarstrom nicht klimaneutral aber trotzdem umweltfreundlich ist – aktuelle Ökobilanzen zu Fotovoltaik. 27. Symposium Photovoltaische Solarenergie, 29. Februar – 2. März 2012, Bad Staffelstein , Deutschland
Stucki M., Frischknecht R. and Jungbluth N. (2011) Agrotreibstoffe versus Solarstrom: Ein Vergleich der Ökobilanzen alternativer Treibstoffe. In: VSE Bulletin, 2011(2), pp. 25ff
Stucki M. and R. Frischknecht, 2010, Vermindert Fotovoltaik die Umweltintensität des Schweizer Stroms? Erkenntnisse aktueller Ökobilanzen zu Strom aus Solarzellen, in Bulletin SEV/VSE, 3/2010, Electrosuisse, Fehraltorf
Jungbluth N., Stucki M. and Frischknecht R. (2010) Photovoltaics. In: Sachbilanzen von Energiesystemen: Grundlagen für den ökologischen Vergleich von Energiesystemen und den Einbezug von Energiesystemen in Ökobilanzen für die Schweiz, Vol. ecoinvent report No. 6-XII, v2.2+ pp. 171. Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories, Dübendorf, CH, 2010.
Frischknecht R., M. Stucki, 2008, IEA-PVPS Task 12: Swiss activities in 2008; Aktualisierung der Ökobilanz von CdTe-PV, in Programm Photovoltaik Ausgabe 2009, Bundesamt für Energie, Bern
Jungbluth N., Tuchschmid M. and de Wild-Scholten M. J. (2008) Life Cycle Assessment for Photovoltaics: Update for ecoinvent data v2.0
Niels Jungbluth, Energy supply: Photovoltaics. 2nd international ecoinvent meeting, 14.3.2008, ETH Lausanne
Final report 2007 for the BFE with a discussion of the results.
First results of ecoinvent data v2.0 have been presented on conferences. (Paper / Slides)
Jungbluth, N. 24. / 25. November 2005: "Vergleich von Energieaufwand und Umweltbelastungen von PV-Anlagen mit konventionellen Kraftwerken." In 6. Nationale Photovoltaik-Tagung. Genf, CH.
Jungbluth, N. 2005: "Life Cycle Assessment for Crystalline Photovoltaics in the Swiss ecoinvent Database." In Prog. Photovolt. Res. Appl., Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Jungbluth, N., Bauer, C., Dones, R., Frischknecht, R. 2004: "Life Cycle Assessment for Emerging Technologies: Case Studies for Photovoltaic and Wind Power." In Int J LCA Vol. 10 (1)
