P.J. Meier, G.L. Kulcinski, Life-Cycle Energy Cost and Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Building Integrated Photovoltaics. Energy Center of Wisconsin Research Report 210-1, 2002.

Abstract

This study performs a life-cycle assessment on a building-integrated photovoltaic (PV) power system and evaluates the net energy payback and greenhouse gas emission rates. The system studied utilizes 8 kilowatts (kW) of amorphous silicon PV material incorporated into standard metal roofing panels. The PV system, located in Silverthorne, Colorado, converts sunlight to direct current (DC) electricity at 6% efficiency. Life-cycle assessment considers “upstream” and “downstream” processes, such as raw materials production, fabrication of system components, transportation, installation, operation and maintenance, and decommissioning. The energy payback ratio (EPR) is the ratio of useful electrical output to the total energy inputs. The PV system EPR is 6, higher than gas turbine technology (4), but lower than coal (11), fission (16), fusion (27), and wind turbine (23) technologies. Net energy analysis is utilized as the basis for calculating a greenhouse gas emission rate. The PV life-cycle emits 39 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent for every gigawatt-hour of electricity produced (T/GWeh). This emission rate is substantially lower than conventional coal (974 T/GWeh) and gas turbine (464 T/GWeh) technologies, and higher than fission (15 T/GWeh), fusion (9 T/GWeh), and wind (14 T/GWeh) technologies.

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