Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Photovoltaic Systems with Uncertainty Analysis

• Published in: Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering
• Main Author: Nordin A.H.M.; Sulaiman S.I.; Mustapa R.F.; Shahruddin M.K.H.
• Format: Conference paper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH 2024
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85200949900&doi=10.1007%2f978-981-97-5782-4_5&partnerID=40&md5=c0d6b60103c8b0e45dbf000a0e847daa

Life cycle assessment (LCA) of photovoltaic (PV) system aims at guiding designers and decision-makers towards more sustainable PV projects. Comparative LCA is usually done where the goal is to select the best option from alternatives. However, unavailability of uncertainty information could cause the reliability of decisions based on the study is questioned. In this study, a comparative LCA on PV systems for different module technologies, i.e. monocrystalline silicon, multicrystalline silicon, cadmium telluride, copper indium selenide and amorphous silicon was conducted by incorporating uncertainty analysis focusing on life cycle data using Monte Carlo simulation in order to demonstrate the effect of uncertainty on the impacts. The results showed that the global warming impact ranges from 22.07 to 89.59 g CO2-eq/kWh across different module technologies considering lower and upper limits of the uncertainty range. This study highlights that presenting the results with uncertainty analysis is crucial to support conclusion in a comparative LCA. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.