Life Cycle Assessment of Photovoltaics; Update of the ecoinvent Database
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1041-R01-03
Life Cycle Assessment of Photovoltaics; Update of the ecoinvent Database Niels Jungbluth1, Roberto Dones2, and Rolf Frischknecht3 1 Head Quarter, ESU-services Ltd., Kanzleistr. 4, Uster, 8610, Switzerland 2 Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen PSI, 5232, Switzerland 3 ecoinvent Centre, Dübendorf, Switzerland
ABSTRACT Recently, the data for photovoltaics in the ecoinvent database have been updated on behalf 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. 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 grid-connected 3 kWp plants in the year 2005. The inventories cover mono- and polycrystalline cells, amorphous and ribbon-silicon, CdTe and CIS thin film cells. Environmental impacts due to the infrastructure for all production stages and the effluents from wafer production are also considered. The ecoinvent database is used as background database. Results from the LCA study are presented, comparing different types of cells used in Switzerland and analysing also the electricity production in a range of different countries. It is also discussed how the environmental impacts of photovoltaics have been reduced over the last 15 years, using the CED indicator. The consistent and coherent LCI datasets for basic processes make it easier to perform LCA studies, and increase the credibility and acceptance of the life cycle results. The content of the PV LCI datasets is available via the website www.ecoinvent.org for ecoinvent members.
INTRODUCTION Life cycle assessment (LCA) has proved to be a powerful tool for the environmental improvement of production processes in the energy sector. However, the increased use of the LCA method to analyse systems is hindered by the lack of agreement on the use of methods and by the limited availability of life cycle inventory (LCI) data. Recently, the data for photovoltaics in the ecoinvent database have been updated on behalf of the European Photovoltaics Industry Association and the Swiss Federal Authority for Energy ([1]). In the past years the PV sector developed rapidly. Ongoing projects such as CrystalClear1 have investigated the up-to-date life cycle inventory data of the multi- and singlecrystalline technologies ([2]). Updated LCI data of single- and multicrystalline PV technologies were investigated within the framework of the CrystalClear project based on 1
See www.ipcrystalclear.info for detailed information.
questionnaires sent to different involved industries. The data investigated with 11 European and US photovoltaic companies for the reference year 2005 are now implemented in the ecoinvent database v2.0 and documented according to the ecoinvent requirements ([1]). The following unit process raw data have been investigated and updated: • • • • • • • • • • •
multicrysta
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