11/06/2016

Lifecycleanalysis

SolarCells

Materials

Collaboration

Knowledgesharing

Aboutus

Login

Social

Lifecycleanalysis

Recommend

1.7K

Follow

Withregardtoenergysystems,manycountrieshaveinductednewpoliciestowidespreadtheinstallationofnewrenewable
sourceplantsinordertoreachtheKyotoprotocolbenchmarks.Manyprojectsfocusingatthereductionofemissionsare

Knowledgesharingmenu

beingplannedtofulfilthemoreandmorerestrictiveenvironmentallaws,andoftenaspecificmentiontophotovoltaicplantsis
Knowledgesharing

reported.
Lifecycleassessment(LCA)isamethodforanalyzingvariousaspectsinvolvedwiththedevelopmentofaproductandits
potentialeffectthroughoutthelifeoftheproduct.TheapplicationofLCAisusefultocomparedifferentproductsandsystems,

Learningcenter
Solarenergy

ordifferentmaterialsproductionorrecyclingmethods.LCAcanbeusedasatooltodetectpotentialforimprovementswiththe
objectivetominimizeimpactonhumanhealth,environmentandresourcedepletion.

Polymersolarcells

TherealizationoftheassessmentunderISOstandards[1]includesthedefinitionofgoalandscope,inventoryanalysis,

Characterization

impactassessmentandinterpretationofresultsasshowninFigure1.Thegoalandscopedescribestheunderlyingquestion
(objective),thesystem,itsboundariesandthedefinitionofafunctionalunit.Theflowsofpollutants,materials,resourcesare
gatheredintheinventoryanalysisphase.Theseelementaryflows(emissions,resourceconsumption,etc.)arecharacterized

Materials
Degradationandstability

andaggregatedforvariousenvironmentalproblemsinimpactassessmentstageandfinallyconclusionsaredrawnin
interpretationstep.TheframeworkofLCAmethodologyisshowninFigure1.

Fabrication
Deploymentofsolarcells
Lifecycleanalysis
ComparisonofOPVwith
othertechnologies
Estimatingthe
environmentalimpactsof
OPV
Interpretingtheresultsfor
OPV
Termsandabbreviations
Videos

Figure1.FrameworkofLCAMethodology[1].
Suchalifecycleanalysisgainsaccuracyonlybyhavingcompletedetailoftheentireprocess.TheOPVcasehasbeenone
exampleoftechnologyecodesignsince2010.Thevalidityoftheresultsresidesinhavingprimarydataontheinputsand
outputsinthefabricationoforganicsolarmodules.Acompletematerialinventoryofalltheneedsisthebasistobuildupthe
energyinventory,andfromtheretoestimatetheenvironmentalimpactsasillustratedinFigure2.

Courses
Publications
Lromsolceller(Danish)
eGOPV2016
Currentweather
Temperature:6.16C
Sampletemp:3.43C
Irradiance:1.4W/m
Humidity:98.30%Rh
Lastupdate:Sun,12Jun2016
04:17:51+0200details

Figure2.LifecyclestagesofaproductandevaluationofrelevantimpactsassociatedwithLCAinputsand

http://plasticphotovoltaics.org/lc/lcdeployment/lclca.html

1/2

11/06/2016

Lifecycleanalysis
releases.

Theembodiedenergyparameter
Oneofthecentralparametersusedtoviewandcompareanenergytechnologyishowefficientitisatconvertingthesource
energyintotheformofenergythatwewouldliketouse(i.e.,theconversionofsunlight,windorwaveenergyintoelectrical
energy).
Energyisneededtocreateenergysystemsintheextractionandprocessingofrawmaterials,inthemanufactureoffinished
productsandcomponents,intheconstructionphase,andinthetransportofmaterials/productstosite.Wecandraw
boundariesandconsidersomeoralllifecyclestages,andassesstheinputsandoutputsthatonlycrossthatboundariesthis
isattheheartofLCA(Figure2).
Usingtheenergyembedded,akacumulativeenergydemand,asaparameterinthecontextofpolymersolarcellsbringsa
newdimensionfromwheretolookatthem.Ithelpstogenerateaframeworkforfuturedecisionmakinganditishighly
appropriateforevaluatingtheenergyinvestmentmadeinanenergysystem.Soweareinapositiontocomparetheefficacy
ofagiventechnologyintermsofhowquicklyitconquersbacktheenergyinvestedinitsmaking.Polymersolarcells
outperformallotherPVtechnologiesevenonalaboratoryscaledescribed.Thismeasureisknownastheenergypayback
time(EPBT).

E inputs
EP BT =
E gen /year

TheinversenumberofEPBTistheenergyreturnfactor(ERF),whichexpressesthenumberoftimesthesystempaysbackthe
energyinvestedinit.Thereareembeddedinthisparameteraseriesofconsiderations,liketheisolation,theperformance
ratio,thedegradationandtheinclusionoftherestofcomponentsoftheinstallationinverter,cabling,structure,etc.
References
[1]ISO14040,InternationalOrganisationforStandardisation(ISO),Geneva,Switzerland,1997
Furtherreading
Espinosaet.al.,SolarEnergyMaterialsandSolarCells201110.1016/j.solmat.2010.08.020
Author
NievesEspinosaMartinez

CopyrightDTUEnergy

http://plasticphotovoltaics.org/lc/lcdeployment/lclca.html

Sitemap|Contactus|Presscenter Search...

2/2