Environmental Life Cycle Inventory of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Module Production
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0895-G03-04.1
Environmental Life Cycle Inventory of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Module Production Mariska J. de Wild-Scholten, [email protected] Energy research Centre of the Netherlands ECN, Unit Solar Energy Westerduinweg 3, P.O. Box 1, NL-1755 ZG Petten, The Netherlands Erik A. Alsema, [email protected] Department of Science, Technology and Society Copernicus Institute, Utrecht University Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht, The Netherlands ABSTRACT Together with 11 European and US photovoltaic companies an extensive effort has been made to collect Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data that represents the status of production technology for crystalline silicon modules for the year 2004. These data can be used to evaluate the environmental impacts of photovoltaic solar energy systems. The new data covers all processes from silicon feedstock production via wafer- and cell- to module manufacturing. All commercial wafer technologies are covered, i.e multi- and monocrystalline wafers as well as ribbon technologies. For monocrystalline silicon wafer production further improvement of the data quality is recommended. INTRODUCTION Reliable data on the environmental impact of PV module manufacturing have been rather scarce for the last 10-15 years. The only extensive data collection based on production data was published in [1] and was based on technology from the late 80’s. Consequently, life cycle assessment [2-4] and external cost studies [5] were often based on the older data set that does not reflect the technological progress made over the past decade. GOAL Together with 11 European and US photovoltaic companies an extensive effort has been made to collect LCI data that represents the status of production technology for crystalline silicon modules. This module type was used in 94% of the 1256 MWp of the produced solar cells in 2004 [6]. The actual results in terms of environmental impact, based on the data in this paper, are published elsewhere [7]. This effort was conducted in the framework of the CrystalClear project; a large European Integrated Project focusing on crystalline silicon technology, co-funded by the European Commission and the participants.
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SCOPE The new data covers all processes from silicon feedstock production via wafer and cell to module manufacturing. All commercial wafer technologies are covered, i.e. multi- and monocrystalline wafers as well as ribbon technologies (see figure 1) All data were collected in the period September 2004-November 2005 and are representative for the technology status in 2004, although for mono-crystalline silicon wafer production further improvement of the data quality is recommended.
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LCI this study
metallurgical grade silicon solar grade silicon
monocrystalline silicon crystal
multicrystalline silicon ingot
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monocrystalline silicon wafers
multicrystalline silicon ribbons
multicrystalline silicon wafers
solar cell PV module electronic components
Installed PV system
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