View article

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) enables us to take into account life cycle stages, from cradle to grave, in measuring environmental and resource sustainability. There has been continuous and remarkable progress in photovoltaic (PV) technologies during the last two decades as governments and the industry stepped up investments in solar energy. Economies of scale and improvements in material utilization and process and module efficiencies have contributed to drastic reductions in production costs and to lower environmental footprints. In this report, we present life cycle inventory data of commercial PV technologies that are the basis for life cycle assessment. The data pertain to mono-and multi-crystalline silicon (Si), cadmium-telluride (CdTe), copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS/CIS), and perovskite silicon tandem PV. We also include in the report additional inventory data describing balance of systems and recycling.