Using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to foster the renaissance of the European photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing industry

Solar energy has become a key player in the transition towards a cleaner energy system and its deployment is essential to achieve the climate targets set by the Green Deal.
The EU has ambitious plans to promote and accelerate the use of solar energy. At the moment, PV manufacturing industry is mainly retained in China. Diversifying supply chains and delivering more efficient and sustainable products is essential to ensure a secure and successful energy transition in Europe. However, the abrupt drop in prices of PV modules puts under imminent risk the renaissance of the European PV manufacturing industry. To tackle this critical situation, LCA could be a useful tool to show the environmental advantages of pushing for a resilient solar industry in Europe. Also, it can be used to highlight the main challenges that need to be addressed at each phase of the solar panel life.
To support the development of new photovoltaic technologies in Europe, a cradle-to-gate LCA is performed to study the hotspots of a potential mainstream technology: silicon heterojunction tunnel – interdigitated back contact technology and assist the eco-design phase. Hereafter, it will be extended to a cradle-to-grave LCA, to analyze the impacts during the use phase and the end-of-life. Different background scenarios are considered to compare the impact of importing Chinese panels with EU manufactured ones.
To perform the described analysis, Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) for PV electricity are followed, and the E.F 3.1 impact assessment method is used. Primary data for the SHJ-IBC is collected from technology manufacturers and secondary data is mainly obtained from the inventories of the International Energy Agency. Ecoinvent 3.9.1 is used as database and the modellings are done in the software Simapro 9.5.
Results will show to what extent emerging PV technologies present an environmental advantage compare to imported modules. Also, the analysis of how the manufacturing location and technical characteristics make a difference to reduce the environmental footprint could make a shift to stop focusing only on the economic dimension and put more weight on sustainability aspects.
Ultimately, on this critical moment when European solar industry is at risk of disappearing, LCA can be used as decision-making tool to transform solar module panels “made in Europe” into a real sustainable technology that can lead the energy transition towards a cleaner and dematerialized society.