Amorphous silicon photovoltaic modules: a life cycle design casestudy

摘要

The life cycle design framework was applied to photovoltaic moduledesign. Two metrics were used to assess life cycle energy performance ofa PV module: energy payback time; and electricity production efficiency.These metrics are based on material production, manufacturing, andtransportation energies, and were evaluated for several geographiclocations. An aluminum frame was responsible for a significant fractionof the total energy invested in the studied module. Design options toreduce the energy impact of this and other components arediscussed