Life-cycle assessment of a photovoltaic system in Catalonia (Spain)

The life-cycle analysis (LCA) of photovoltaic (PV) systems is an important tool to quantify the potential environmental advantage of using solar technologies versus more traditional technologies, especially the ones relying on non-renewable fossil fuel sources.This work performs a life-cycle assessment on a 200 kW roof top photovoltaic (PV) system with polycrystalline silicon modules and evaluates the net energy pay-back and greenhouse gas emission rates. The performed life-cycle assessment “upstream” and “downstream” processes are considered, such as raw materials production, fabrication of system components, transportation and installation. The energy pay-back time ratio is determined for the installed technology and two other technologies of PV modules (monocrystalline and thin-film).The analysed PV system, located in Pineda de Mar (Catalonia, Spain), has an energy pay-back time ratio of 4.36 years. Furthermore, a sensibility analysis on solar radiation has been performed.