Generalizing a Parameterized Model Approach for Customized Life Cycle Assessment of Different Photovoltaic Technologies

To reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by United Nations Member States in 2015, renewable energies have a large potential to decrease environmental impacts typically associated to energy generation systems, such as climate change. Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is considered economically viable, socially equitable and represents a sustainable and environmentally friendly method of producing energy. Nevertheless, this technology is the subject of much criticism and should be assessed and implemented properly. Compared to fossil-based systems, PV systems have less or even negligible environmental impacts during the power generation stage. However, the raw materials extraction and the end-of-life stages are not burden-free and are not always included and assessed in published studies. Therefore, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a relevant and widely accepted environmental assessment method as it determines the environmental impacts of a PV system over its whole life cycle. Data quality is one of the key issues to conduct accurate and representative LCA of PV systems. Although the PV industry has considerably improved over the last 20 years in terms of energy and raw material usage, these improvements are not always reflected in existing databases used in LCA studies. To better consider the fast and continuous progress of the PV industry, generic and flexible models of modular life cycle inventories (LCI) -have been proposed. This study proposes a parameterization of existing LCIs for the environmental assessment of the most common PV technologies over their whole life cycle. The approach allows the LCIs to be easily adapted to each individual system by modifying the values of the variable input parameters. Based on a previous work on crystalline silicon-based PV systems, this study provides a customized evaluation of PV systems based on silicon and thin-film technologies, that are either ground- or rooftop-mounted in France. Special attention has been paid to the end-of-life stage with the aim of integrating the current practices such as reuse, recycling, screening, and crushing of PV modules.