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Abstract
The energetic and environmental life cycle assessment of a 4.2 kWp stand-alone photovoltaic system (SAPV) at the University of Murcia (south-east of Spain) is presented. PV modules and batteries are the energetically and environmentally most expensive elements. The
energy pay-back time was found to be 9.08 years and the specic CO2 emissions was calculated as 131 g/kWh. The SAPV system has
been environmentally compared with other supply options (diesel generator and Spanish grid) showing lower impacts in both cases.
The results show the CO2-emission reduction potential of SAPV systems in southern European countries and point out the critical environmental issues in these systems.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Life cycle assessment; Stand-alone photovoltaic system; Energy pay-back time; CO2 emission factor
1. Introduction
Power generation from photovoltaic (PV) systems is free
from fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
However a considerable amount of energy is consumed in
the manufacturing and transport of the elements of the system, also the amount of energy and emissions from a
decommissioning phase of the system must be taken into
account.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies aim at comparing
and analysing the environmental impacts of products and
services. In solar PV systems these studies present the
energy use in terms of energy pay-back time (EPBT), which
is the time required for the solar PV system to generate the
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: rafael.gvalverde@upct.es (R. Garca-Valverde).
1
Supported by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Education through
the fellowship AP2005-2271.
0038-092X/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.solener.2009.03.012
1435
1436
Table 1
Technical specications of the PV system.
Manufacturer
ISOFOTON
PV module
Nominal power (W)
Open circuit voltage (V)
Short circuit current (A)
Max. power voltage (V)
Max. power current (A)
Mass (kg)
Length (cm)
Width (cm)
106
43.2
3.27
34.8
3.05
11.5
131.0
65.4
Inverter
Model
Nominal input voltage (V)
Input voltage range (V)
Nominal output power (kVA)
Nominal output voltage (V)
Frequency output (Hz)
Eciency
ISOVERTER 3000/48
48
4064
3.0
220
50 1%
8595%
a
b
c
Manufacturer
ISOFOTON
Charge regulators
Model
Nominal Voltage (V)
Maximum Currenta (A)
Consumption disconnection (V)
Generation disconnection (V)
ISOTEL 40SD
48
30 4
<44.8
>62.4
Bank of batteries
Type
Nominal voltageb (V)
Capacityc (Ah)
Capacity (kWh)
Minimum SOC
Open lead-acid
2 24
2300
110.4
70%
1437
1200
36
Horizontal Global Rad.
Horizontal Diffuse Rad.
1000
30
800
24
600
18
400
12
200
0
00:03
Ambient Temp.
0
02:08 04:13
06:18
08:23
10:28 12:33
14:38
16:43
18:48 20:53
22:58
inow in some components comes from recycled material.These percentages are detailed below. A list of materials that were used in constructing the given PV facility is
provided in Table 2 and plotted in Fig. 6.
In SAPV systems the battery life time is a limiting factor. The lead-acid batteries life time in a SAPV facility
depends strongly on the level of use (autonomy, charge-discharge rates and protections from the charge regulator)
1438
4000
105
3000
100
2500
95
2000
90
1500
85
1000
80
500
75
0
00:03 02:08
Power [W]
3500
110
PV Power
Load Power
SOC
70
04:13
06:18 08:23
10:28 12:33
14:38 16:43
18:48
20:53 22:58
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Table 2
Material use in the SAPV system.
Element
Materials
Mass
(kg)
40 106 Wp PV module
Mono-crystalline silicon,
aluminiun, EVA, TEDLAR
Mixed
Mixed
Lead, lead oxide, lead sulphate,
etc.
Galvanized steel
Copper
460
2 Charge regulators
1 Inverter
24 2 V Lead-acid batteries
(2300Ah@C100)
Supporting structure
Cables
5
25
2412a,b
562
44
a
Excluding the weight of the electrolyte according to the estimation in
Rydh and Sanden (2005a).
b
Double amount of batteries.
con module (frameless) production in 5700 MJ/m2 equivalent to 1.583 MWhth/m2 (13.19 MWth/kWp).
Ten per cent of the module weight is considered as the
aluminium frame. Recycling rates for aluminium for building and transport applications range from 6090 per cent in
1440
4824
kg
4000
3000
2000
1000
562
400
60
44
25
Module
frames
Cables
Inverter
Charge
regulators
0
24V Lead- Supporting
acid battery structure
PV
modules
(frameless)
Table 3
Life cycle energy use for mono-crystalline solar PV modules.
Source
12.50 MWhth/kWp
16.00 MWhth/kWp
16.08 MWhth/kWp
Alsema (2000a)
13.19 MWhth/kWp
Conversions to module rated peak power (kWp) basis are easily computed from module area and power rating from the manufacturer datasheets.
Table 4
Energy requirements for production of the SAPV system.
Element
Reclycled materials
and manufacturing
mc-Si PV modulea,b
Al module framec
Charge regulatord
Inverterb,d
Lead-acid batteryd
Steel galvanizede
Cablese
1.583 MWhth/m2
41.7 kWhth/kg
277 kWhth/kWel
277 kWhth/kWel
331 kWhth/kWh
9.72 kWhth/kg
19.44 kWhth/kg
2.08 kWhth/kg
242 kWhth/kWh
2.5 kWhth/kg
13.9 kWhth/kg
a
b
c
d
e
Frameless.
Alsema (2000a).
IAI (2003).
Rydh and Sanden (2005a).
Hammond and Jones (2006).
1441
63.17
60.00
55.42
MWh th
50.00
40.00
30.00
20.00
10.00
1.81
1.67
1.16
0.83
0.75
Supporting
structure
Al frames
Charge
regulators
Inverter
Cables
0.00
Lead-acid
batteries
PV
modules
(mc-Si)
For simplicity, recycling processes for metals (aluminium, steel and copper) are considered to consume the same
energy as the energy requirements to produce and manufacture them from recycled material (values shown in Table
4).
Regarding recycling lead-acid batteries, the recycling
process is dierent from the production process using recycled materials. The value 0.688 kWhth of energy consumption per kg of recycled lead-acid batteries is assumed, in
accordance with Salomone (2005).
3.2.3.2. Transport to recycling plants. We assume batteries
and metals would be recycled in the closest local recycling
factories. In this sense, 50 km distance is assumed.
Table 5 shows the energy consumption in the decommissioning phase for the dierent elements in the given PV
facility.
3.3. Life cycle GHG emissions
The CO2 emissions due to the production of the PV system can be obtained by multiplying all energy and material
inputs by their corresponding emission factors.
Table 6 shows the CO2 emission factors used in the analysis. For PV modules, electronic devices and batteries proTable 5
Energy consumption in the decommission phase for the PV facility
(kWhth).
Element
Recycling process
Transport to
recycling plants
Total
PV frames
Supporting structure
Cables
Lead-acid batteries
125.00
1405.18
611.84
3316.77
0.60
5.62
0.44
48.24
125.60
1410.80
612.28
3365.01
Total
5458.79
54.90
5513.69
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Table 6
Emission factors for the elements in the SAPV facility.
Element
a
Al frames
mc-Si PV modulesb
Charge regulatorsb
Inverterb
Lead-acid batteriesc
Supporting structured
Cablesd
a
b
c
d
Recycling process
14.6 kgCO2/kg
93.6 gCO2/kWhth
93.6 gCO2/kWhth
93.6 gCO2/kWhth
93.6 gCO2/kWhth
2.82 kgCO2/kg
5.57 kgCO2/kg
0.73 kgCO2/kg
93.6 gCO2/kWhth
0.45 kgCO2/kg
3.98 kgCO2/kg
0.73 kgCO2/kg
0.16 gCO2/kg
0.45 kgCO2/kg
3.98 kgCO2/kg
IAI (2003).
WWF/ADENA (2006).
Salomone (2005) and WWF/ADENA (2006).
Hammond and Jones (2006).
Construction
phase
Decommission
phase
Total
586.90
5202.07
109.09
78.69
6088.00
388.70
215.45
44.07
22.71
255.49
175.53
630.97
5202.07
109.09
78.69
6110.72
644.19
390.99
12,668.90
497.80
13,166.71
EEMB;th gthel
:
EUSE;el
H i P STC
;
GSTC
where Hi is the yearly irradiation received by the PV generator, GSTC is the irradiance at standard conditions
(1000 W/m2) and PSTC is the nominal PV generator power
at the maximum power point at standard conditions.
3.5. CO2 emissions analysis
The environmental impacts of SAPV systems can only
be evaluated properly if we compare them to other supply
options. Avoided emissions depend on the alternative electricity supply which the PV facility is compared to. Two
1443
Cables
1.63%
Recycling
3.59%
Transport
1.67%
Module frames
4.44%
Supporting
structure
2.93%
PV modules
(frameless)
39.40%
Lead-acid
batteries
44.91%
Inverter
0.59%
Charge
regulators
0.83%
Table 8
LCA for the PV installation: embodied energy.
Embodied energy (MWhth)
Element
Mass (kg)
PV modules (frameless)
Module frames
Charge regulators
Inverter
Lead-acid batteries
Supporting structure
Cables
400.00
60.00
5.00
25.00
4824.00
562.07
44.05
55.43
1.80
1.16
0.83
66.74
3.22
1.36
Total
5920.12
130.55
Recycling
2.10%
Transportation
0.11%
Module frames
0.34%
PV modules
(frameless)
21%
Lead-acid batteries
48.68%
Charge regulators
0.45%
Inverter
0.32%
Fig. 9. Distribution of life cycle energy use in the PV facility: embodied energy.
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Table 9
EPBT Comparison with other LCA studies of SAPV system.
Source
Alsema (2000b)
Celik et al. (2008)
Present studya
a
EPBT (years)
2
10.11
6.29.6
9.08
The irradiance and the PR have been estimated from almost 2 years of measured data at the facility each 5 min.
1270
1200
g/kWh
1000
800
600
600
337
400
131
200
0
Diesel Generator
SHS (Indonesia,
2000)
SAPV University of
Murcia
Fig. 10. CO2 emission per kWh of supplied electricity (assuming a 20-year life time) for dierent supply options.
The current facility is forecasted to payback its embodied energy in about 9.08 years since its installation (March,
2003). The emission factor for the facility is 131 g of CO2
per kWh for an estimated life-time of 20 years. This value
is much lower than other possible supply options (diesel
generator and Spanish grid) and shows the great environmental potential of photovoltaics in the south-east of
Spain.
Acknowledgement
This work has been possible thanks to the project HOPE
CSD2007-00007 (Consolider-Ingenio 2010).
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