Life cycle assessment of gravure printed organic photovoltaic solar panels

Abstract

In this thesis project, a gate-to-gate comparative life cycle analysis (LCA) was performed on the product under the study is printed organic photovoltaic panels (OPV). Traditional silicon-based solar panels were used as a reference point, i.e. point of comparison. The assessment system boundaries were set for two phases of the products’ cycle: manufacturing and use phases, omitting the raw material extraction and production as well as end-of-life phases and possible transportation impacts. The panels were assessed as bare cells, without any additional electronics required to install a solar energy module.

Two main environmental factors were assessed – global warming potential and cumulative energy demand, additionally deriving energy payback time estimates.

Possible avoided CO2 emissions in terms of residential energy use were also estimated in this study. The assessment was done with a perspective of 20 years working time of the panels, which turned out to be a highly important factor in this assessment.

The basics of organic solar energy technologies were discussed, together with the LCA standard guidelines. The study results and conclusion sections provide a discussion on the future development areas for this quite new technology.