Full Title: An Updated Life Cycle Assessment of Utility-Scale Solar Photovoltaic Systems Installed in the United States
Author(s): Brittany L. Smith, Ashok Sekar, Heather Mirletz, Garvin Heath, and Robert Margolis
Publisher(s): National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Publication Date: March 16, 2024
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Description (excerpt):
Given the high deployment targets for solar photovoltaics (PV) to meet U.S. decarbonization goals, and the limited carbon budget remaining to limit global temperature rise, accurate accounting of PV system life cycle energy use and greenhouse gas emissions is needed. In the United States, most PV systems are large, utility-scale systems that use single-axis trackers and central inverters, which are not commonly examined in existing life cycle assessment (LCA) literature.
This study presents a cradle-to-grave LCA of a typical silicon U.S. utility-scale PV (UPV) installation that is consistent with the utility system features documented in the NREL annual PV system cost benchmark reports (Ramasamy et al. 2022). They analyze and present results for four main LCA metrics: cumulative energy demand (CED), greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy payback time (EPBT), and carbon payback time (CPBT).