Life cycle assessment of multicrystalline silicon photovoltaic cell production in China

TL;DR: A comprehensive literature review has been performed to analyse which tools have been used by the scientific community for the sustainability evaluation of renewable energy systems during the past ten years and shows that LCA and MCDM applied individually do not achieve a comprehensive sustainability evaluation.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors quantitatively assesses the life-cycle environmental impacts of Chinese multi-crystalline photovoltaic systems involving the recycling process and find that polysilicon production, cell processing and modules assembling have relatively higher environmental impact than processes of Industrial silicon smelting and Ingot casting and Wafer slicing.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared the environmental impacts of glass-glass and glass-backsheet modules produced in China, Germany and the European Union (EU), using current inventory data.

TL;DR: In this paper , a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) is carried out for three methods of hydrogen production by solar energy: hydrogen production via PEM water electrolysis coupling photothermal power generation, hydrogen production with PEM electrolysis coupled photovoltaic power generation and hydrogen production using thermochemical water splitting method using S-I cycle coupling solar photothermal technology.

TL;DR: The IMPACT 2002+ method as mentioned in this paper proposes a feasible implementation of a combined midpoint/damage approach, linking all types of life cycle inventory results (elementary flows and other interventions) via 14 midpoint categories to four damage categories.

TL;DR: TRACI as discussed by the authors is a stand-alone computer program developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which facilitates the characterization of environmental stressors that have potential effects, including ozone depletion, global warming, acidification, eutrophication, tropospheric ozone (smog) formation, ecotoxicity, human health criteria-related effects, humanhealth cancer effects and human health non-cancer effects, fossil fuel depletion, and land use effects.

TL;DR: TRACI 2.0 allows the quantification of stressors that have potential effects, including ozone depletion, global warming, acidification, eutrophication, tropospheric ozone (smog) formation.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an initial step to share and validate data and discuss methodologies in full transparency towards better energy and emission data for China, which is the world's top CO2 emitter.