Life-Cycle Costs and Emissions of Pareto-Optimal Residential Roof-Mounted Photovoltaic Systems
Publication: Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 19, Issue 3
Abstract
Research has separately existed for life-cycle costs and environmental assessment of photovoltaic systems. This study provides a framework for the identification of the optimal set of residential photovoltaic system options in terms of costs and selected air emissions by assessing the life cycle of the product from manufacturing to disposal. Analyzed air emissions include carbon, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter. The study focuses on general residential installations within the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Pareto frontiers are determined for costs and emissions, and the best options for suppliers are identified in each case, including sensitivity analysis of the installation planning horizon. Choosing multicrystalline silicon modules over thin film modules has the greatest impact on cost reduction. The electricity mix with which the modules are produced has the greatest impact on the emissions.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Alsema, E. A., and de Wild-Scholten, M. J. (2006). “Environmental impacts of crystalline silicon photovoltaic module production.” Proc., 13th CIRP Int. Conf. on Life Cycle Engineering, The International Academy for Production Engineering, Paris, France.
Baetz, B. W., and Neebe, A. W. (1994). “A planning model for the development of waste material recycling programmes.” J. Oper. Res. Soc., 45(12), 1374–1384.
Bony, L., Doig, S., Hart, C., Maurer, E., and Newman, S. (2010). Achieving low-cost solar PV: Industry workshop recommendations for near-term balance of system cost reductions, Rocky Mountain Institute, Boulder, CO.
California Air Resources Board. (2011). “Assembly Bill 32: Global Warming Solutions Act.” 〈http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ab32/ab32.htm〉 (Dec. 14, 2011).
California Energy Commission. (2011). “Total electricity system power.” 〈http://energyalmanac.ca.gov/electricity/total_system_power.html〉 (Dec. 14, 2011).
Carnegie Mellon University Green Design Institute. (2012). “Economic input-output life cycle assessment (EIO-LCA).” US 2002 Industry benchmark model, 〈http://www.eiolca.net〉 (Mar. 12, 2012).
Dandy, C. G., Bogdanowicz, A., Craven, J., Maywalk, A., and Liu, P. (2008). “Optimizing the sustainability of water distribution networks.” Proc., 10th Annual Water Distribution Systems Analysis Conf., American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, VA.
Dones, R., et al. (2007). “Life cycle inventories of energy systems: Results for current systems in Switzerland and other UCTE countries.” Ecoinvent Rep. 5, Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories, Dubendorf, Switzerland.
Facanha, C., and Horvath, A. (2007). “Evaluation of life-cycle air emission factors of freight transportation.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 41(20), 7138–7144.
Fthenakis, V. M. (2000). “End-of-life management and recycling of PV modules.” Energy Policy, 28(14), 1051–1058.
Fthenakis, V. M., and Kim, H. C. (2007). “Greenhouse-gas emissions from solar-electric and nuclear power: A life-cycle study.” Energy Policy, 35(4), 2549–2557.
Fthenakis, V. M., Kim, H. C., and Alsema, E. (2008). “Emissions from photovoltaic life-cycles.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 42(6), 2168–2174.
Hendrickson, C., Horvath, A., Joshi, S., and Lave, L. (1998). “Economic input-output models for environmental life-cycle assessment.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 32(7), 184–191.
International Energy Administration. (2012). “Electricity/heat in Italy in 2009.” 〈http://www.iea.org/stats/electricitydata.asp?COUNTRY_CODE=IT〉 (Mar. 12, 2012).
International Energy Agency. (2012). “Electricity/heat in Japan in 2009.” 〈http://www.iea.org/stats/electricitydata.asp?COUNTRY_CODE=JP〉 (Mar. 12, 2012).
Kammen, D., and Pacca, S. (2004). “Assessing the costs of electricity.” Ann. Rev. Environ. Resour., 29(1), 301–344.
Keoleian, G. A., and Lewis, G. M. (1997). “Application of life-cycle energy analysis to photovoltaic module design.” Prog. Photovoltaics Res. Appl., 5(4), 287–300.
Keoleian, G. A., and Lewis, G. M. (2003). “Modeling the life cycle energy and environmental performance of amorphous silicon BIPV roofing in the US.” Renewable Energy, 28(2), 271–293.
Lu, L., and Yang, H. X. (2010). “Environmental payback time analysis of a roof-mounted building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) system in Hong Kong.” Appl. Energy, 87(12), 3625–3631.
McGalliard, G. (2010). Kyocera to build first-ever solar manufacturing plant in SD, San Diego News Room, San Diego, CA.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (2008). United States photovoltaic solar resource: Flat plate tilted at latitude, NREL, Golden, CO.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory. (2011). “NREL: PVWatts – How to change parameters.” 〈http://www.nrel.gov/rredc/pvwatts/changing_parameters.html〉 (Feb. 13, 2012).
Newman, S., Doig, S., Hansen, L., and Lacy, V. (2009). Accelerating solar power adoption: Compounding cost savings across the chain, Rocky Mountain Institute, Boulder, CO.
Pacca, S., and Horvath, A. (2002). “Greenhouse gas emissions from building and operating electric power plants in the Upper Colorado River Basin.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 36(14), 3194–3200.
Pehnt, M. (2006). “Dynamic life cycle assessment (LCA) of renewable energy technologies.” Renew. Energ., 31(1), 55–71.
Perpinan, O., Lorenzo, E., Castro, M. A., and Eyras, R. (2009). “Energy payback time of grid connected PV tracking systems: Comparison between tracking and fixed systems.” Prog. Photovoltaics Res. Appl., 17(2), 137–147.
Short, W., Packey, D. J., and Holt, T. (1995). A manual for the economic evaluation of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO.
Sprague, E., and Cahill, R. (2011). The impact of local permitting on the cost of solar power, SunRun, San Francisco.
Stoppato, A. (2008). “Life cycle assessment of photovoltaic electricity generation.” Energy, 33(2), 224–232.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (USBLS). (2012). “Inflation calculator: Bureau of Labor Statistics.” 〈http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm〉 (Mar. 12, 2012).
U.S. Energy Information Administration (USEIA). (2010a). Annual energy review, Washington, DC.
U.S. Energy Information Administration (USEIA). (2010b). “Cost and quality of fuels for electric plants 2009.”, Washington, DC.
U.S. Energy Information Administration (USEIA). (2011). “China—Analysis.” 〈http://www.eia.gov/countries/cab.cfm?fips=CH〉 (Mar. 12, 2012).
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2006). Life cycle assessment: Principles and practices, U.S. EPA, Washington, DC.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2010). Chapter 1, External combustion sources, AP 42, 5th Ed., Vol. 1, U.S. EPA, Washington, DC.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2011). eGRID2010 Version 1.1, Year 2007 Summary Tables, U.S. EPA, Washington, DC.
Vieira, P., and Horvath, A. (2008). “Assessing the end-of-life impacts of buildings.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 42(13), 4663–4669.
Weber, C. L., and Matthews, H. S. (2008). “Food-miles and the relative climate impacts of food choices in the United States.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 42(10), 3508–3513.
Wiser, R., Barbose, G., and Peterman, C. (2009). “Tracking the sun: The installed cost of photovoltaics in the United States from 1998–2007.”, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA.
Wiser, R., Bolinger, M., and Cappers, P. (2006). Letting the sun shine on solar costs: An empirical investigation of photovoltaic cost trends in California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA.
Zhang, C., Heller, T. C., and May, M. M. (2005). “Carbon intensity of electricity generation and CDM baseline: Case study of three Chinese provinces.” Energy Policy, 33(4), 451–465.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 19 • Issue 3 • September 2013
Pages: 306 - 314
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 15, 2011
Accepted: Jul 24, 2012
Published online: Aug 15, 2012
Discussion open until: Jan 15, 2013
Published in print: Sep 1, 2013
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.