Using Life Cycle Assessment to Determine the Environmental Impacts Caused by Solar Photovoltaic Systems

Abstract

The paper presents research that investigated the Life Cycle Assessment of multi-crystalline photovoltaic (PV) panels, by considering environmental impacts of the entire life cycle for any solar PVsystems. The overall manufacturing process of a solar PV panel ranging from silica extraction, crystalline silicon ingot growth, wavering to module fabrication and packing of the solar PV panel. The results from this research showed that the module assembly and cell processing of the manufacturing process contributed towards the main environmental impacts of the life cycle of solar PV systems.