CO2 Emissions of PV in the Perspective of a Renewable Energy Economy

Publication date

2007-09-03

Authors

van Sark, W. G.J.H.M.ORCID 0000-0002-4738-1088ISNI 0000000397039608
Reich, N.H.ISNI 0000000419425797
Alsema, E.A.ISNI 0000000388413979
Nieuwlaar, E.ISNI 0000000041375600

Editors

Willeke, G.
Ossenbrink, H.
Helm, P.

Advisors

Supervisors

DOI

Document Type

Part of book
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License

Abstract

The wide range of greenhouse gas emissions (30-300 g CO2-eq/kWh) quoted for PV generated electricity in life cycle assessment studies so far is shown to be mainly caused by the different CO2 emission of energy consumed in manufacture of PV modules. A better way of comparing the CO2-eq emissions would be to calculate the direct CO2 emissions of PV module manufacturing and quote these separately from the indirect CO2 emissions due to energy consumption. It is shown that the indirect CO2-eq emission makes up more than 90% of the total, indicating the importance of calculating and reporting these two emission sources separately.

Keywords

Taverne, SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production

Citation

van Sark, W G J H M, Reich, N H, Alsema, E A & Nieuwlaar, E 2007, CO2 Emissions of PV in the Perspective of a Renewable Energy Economy. in G Willeke, H Ossenbrink & P Helm (eds), 22nd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference. WIP-Renewable Energies, [München], pp. 3538-3542.