Life cycle assessment Status

HELMo-CRIG
Jonathan Mahaux - Pierre Gabriel

1 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

CRIG
• Related to higher education school HELMo

• Active in various scientific fields: technical,

biomedical, economics, etc.

• Contribution in Rolling Solar:

- Life cycle assessment of infrastructure

integrated photovoltaic systems

2 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Life cycle assessment ?

 Goal and scope definition

• Intended results
• Limits of the systems

 Inventory analysis
• Material, energy & ancillary inputs
• Emissions & wastes outputs

 Impact assessment
• Environmental impacts computation
• Environmental trends & indicators

 Interpretation
• LCA = Iterative methodology
• Coherence, completeness, etc.

3 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Rolling Solar - LCA Raw material extraction
Goal and scope definition
End of life – Recycling Manufacture

• Cradle to cradle approach

• Multifunctionality: Cradle-
 Electricity production
 Infrastructure characteristic
to-
End of life - Landfill Cradle Installation
• Functional unit:
Energy production
Average production of 1kWh of AC power
output in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine.

4 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Rolling Solar - LCA
Goal and scope definition
Main assumptions:
• 25% production decrease for roads; 10 % for Noise
barrier
• Installation and maintenance processes similar to
conventional systems
• Lifetime: 30 years for solar noise barrier, 15 years for
solar roads and 10 years for inverters.
• Solar irradiation following PVGIS

Handling of multifunctionality :

 Assessment of electricity production and crediting of

infrastructure functions.
5 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020
Rolling Solar - LCA
Life cycle inventory

6 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Rolling Solar - LCA
Life cycle inventory

Monocrystalline PERC cell

process flowchart and Life
cycle inventory inputs :

7 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Rolling Solar - LCA
Life cycle inventory: Production of 1 m2 of Mono-Si PERC cell

8 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Rolling Solar - LCA
Environmental assessment: Sub-groups trends
• Many impacts categories considered
( ReciPe Method)

• Relative approach and comparison:

Identification of trends and hotspots
instead of assertive values

PV technologies:
• Cradle to gate results :

CdTe , CIGS > mono-Si

• General Hotspots: electricity consumption,

raw material extraction, used chemicals

9 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Rolling Solar - LCA
Environmental assessment: Sub-groups trends
Noise barrier mounting structure :
• Cradle-to-gate results:

Van de Kreeke design ≈ Van Eycken design

> Heijmans design

• Hotspots: raw material extraction and

electricity consumption

Decommissioning and end-of-life

management ?

10 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Rolling Solar - LCA
Environmental assessment: Sub-groups trends
Solar road vs Noise-barrier mounting
structure :
• Cradle-to-gate results:

Heijmans < Solar road < Van

Eycken – Van de Kreeke

• Hotspots: raw material extraction and

electricity consumption

Decommissioning and end-of-life

management ?

11 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Rolling Solar - LCA
Environmental assessment: Prototypes – Mounting structure comparison
Determining factors:
• Overall efficiency
• Cell coverage
• Bifaciality
• Balance of systems: structure &
electrical equipment

Van Eycken prototypes (without noise

absorber material) seem to be best
performing

Heijmans panels’ bifaciality levels up

the impacting mounting structure compared
to Van de Kreeke monofacial design

12 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Rolling Solar - LCA
Environmental assessment: Prototypes – Mounting structure comparison

13 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Rolling Solar - LCA
Environmental assessment: Prototypes – PV cell comparison
Determining factors:
• Overall efficiency
• Cell coverage
• Bifaciality
• PV cell related environmental impacts

CIGS: low cells impacts and

bifaciality but low cell coverage

CdTe: low cells impacts and great cell

coverage but monofacial laminates

Mono-Si PERC: relatively high cells

impacts but bifaciality and good cell
coverage

14 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Rolling Solar - LCA
Environmental assessment: Prototypes – PV cell comparison

15 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Rolling Solar - LCA
Environmental assessment: Prototypes – Details
 Junction box and fuse box negligible
 Laminate, frame and cabling have
relatively noticeable impacts
 PV cells, mounting structure and
inverters are the main environmental
impacts contributors

Identified factors to increase

environmental performance:

 Thin-film cells with high efficiency

 Bifaciality
 Low hot-rolled steel usage for
mounting structure
 Long-lasting inverters

16 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Rolling Solar - LCA
Environmental assessment: Energy Payback-time
• : Primary energy input for PV module life cycle
EPBT = • : Primary energy input for the electrical balance of system life cycle
• : Primary energy input for the mounting structure life cycle

• : Approximation of total energy yield

• = Area*Lifetime*Irradiation*PR*efficiency

Range of results : 3.6 to 6.1 years

• Conventional PV systems: 0.7 to 7.5 years ( according to literature found values)

 Power production decrease leads to higher IIPV EPBT

 The same goes with more impacting mounting structure

17 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020
Rolling Solar - LCA
Environmental assessment: Normalized results
Normalized results : Relative impacts
based on the impacts per person per year
worldwide.

• Global Warming potential ( GHG emissions)

 Range of results : 10 to 300 gCO2-eq/kWh

 Conventional PV systems: 30 gCO2-eq/kWh
( current installed capacity)
 Average energy mix:
• Netherlands : 505 gCO2-eq/kWh in
2016
• Belgium : 169.6 gCO2-eq/kWh in 2016

18 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Rolling Solar - LCA
Sensitivity analysis: Power production
• Accurate system: Prototypes production
data needed
• Current system : Strong hypotheses on
the cell efficiency, lifetime and
performance ratio

• Sensitivity analysis :
Baseline : Production of 3500 kWh/m2PVpanel
for a 30 years lifetime

 High sensitivity to power

production with asymptotic
behaviour
 IIPV reliability and high outputs
required to ensure good
environmental performance

19 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020

Rolling Solar - LCA
End-of-life management
Scenario to be determined:

 Refurbishment possibilities: Material type, quantity

and method
 Downgrade recycling possibilities : Material type,
quantity and method
 Landfill when no other options
 Decommissioning already planned ?
 Collection path ?

20 | Life cycle assessment HELMo-CRIG 16 October 2020