Lifecycle climate impacts and economic performance of commercial-scale solar PV systems: A study of PV systems at Nevada's Desert Research Institute (DRI)

摘要

The Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Nevada has recently installed eight solar PV systems with a cumulative nameplate capacity of 2.4 MW that scale from 3 kW to 1145 kW. These systems supply approximately 40% of the total electricity used at DRI's Reno and Las Vegas campuses. This work explored greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts and economic performance of these PV systems by developing and applying comprehensive life cycle analysis (LCA) combined with economic analysis. The LCA model was built using data appropriate for each type of panel used in the DRI systems. Power output was estimated using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) model, called PVWatts (R). The performance of PVWatts (R) was verified by comparison with actual measurements from one of DRI's PV systems over an entire year. Lifecycle metrics quantified for the DRI systems include GHG intensity, energy payback time, cost payback time, and cost of avoided CO2.