Title: Emissions through solar PV systems - a review

Authors: Mohammad Ziaur Rahman

Addresses: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Dhaka 1208, Bangladesh

Abstract: Photovoltaic (PV) system has been quoted for wide range of green house gas (GHG) emissions through life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. There are a variety of solar cell materials available, which vary in conversion efficiency and emission of CO2. This paper is based on the LCA analysis of PV system which starts from the production of these solar cells and goes through the stages known as transportation, installation, operational period to their disposal or recycling and tried to find out the GHG emission in all the stages separately and the environmental impact of this emission. In this paper, different improvement techniques were also suggested to reduce the impact of GHG through solar PV system.

Keywords: life cycle assessment; LCA; manufacturing; processing; balance of system; BOS; energy payback; environmental impact; GHG emissions; greenhouse gases; photovoltaics; PV systems; solar energy; solar power; solar cells; CO2; carbon dioxide; carbon emissions.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRET.2014.065375

International Journal of Renewable Energy Technology, 2014 Vol.5 No.4, pp.323 - 349

Received: 09 Jun 2013
Accepted: 05 Nov 2013

Published online: 31 Oct 2014 *

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