Environmental Profile of the Manufacturing Process of Perovskite Photovoltaics: Harmonization of Life Cycle Assessment Studies

The development of perovskite solar cell technology is steadily increasing. The extremely high photoconversion efficiency drives factor that makes these devices so attractive for photovoltaic energy production. However, the environmental impact of this technology could represent a crucial matter for industrial development, and the sustainability of perovskite solar cell is at the center of the scientific debate. The life cycle assessment studies available in the literature evaluate the environmental profile of this technology, but the outcomes vary consistently depending on the methodological choices and assumptions made by authors. In this work, we performed the harmonization of these life cycle assessment results to understand which are effectively the environmental hotspots of the perovskite solar cell fabrication. The outcomes of this analysis allowed us to outline an environmental ranking of the profiles of the several cell configurations investigated and, most importantly, to identify the material and energy flows that mostly contribute to the technology in terms of environmental impact.

[1]  H. L. Miller,et al.  Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis , 2007 .

[2]  Mark A. J. Huijbregts,et al.  USEtox—the UNEP-SETAC toxicity model: recommended characterisation factors for human toxicity and freshwater ecotoxicity in life cycle impact assessment , 2008 .

[3]  Tsutomu Miyasaka,et al.  Organometal halide perovskites as visible-light sensitizers for photovoltaic cells. , 2009, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[4]  Not Indicated,et al.  International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook: Framework and Requirements for Life Cycle Impact Assessment Models and Indicators , 2010 .

[5]  Maria Laura Parisi,et al.  Life Cycle Assessment of advanced technologies for photovoltaic panels production , 2010 .

[6]  Jane C. Bare,et al.  Updated US and Canadian normalization factors for TRACI 2.1 , 2014, Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy.

[7]  Frederik C. Krebs,et al.  Solution and vapour deposited lead perovskite solar cells: Ecotoxicity from a life cycle assessment perspective , 2015 .

[8]  David Cahen,et al.  Rain on Methylammonium Lead Iodide Based Perovskites: Possible Environmental Effects of Perovskite Solar Cells. , 2015, The journal of physical chemistry letters.

[9]  Frederik C. Krebs,et al.  Tin‐ and Lead‐Based Perovskite Solar Cells under Scrutiny: An Environmental Perspective , 2015 .

[10]  Yelin Deng,et al.  Life Cycle Assessment of Titania Perovskite Solar Cell Technology for Sustainable Design and Manufacturing. , 2015, ChemSusChem.

[11]  Aldo Di Carlo,et al.  Perovskite solar cells and large area modules (100 cm2) based on an air flow-assisted PbI2 blade coating deposition process , 2015 .

[12]  M. Heben,et al.  Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of perovskite PV cells projected from lab to fab , 2016 .

[13]  Aslihan Babayigit,et al.  Toxicity of organometal halide perovskite solar cells. , 2016, Nature materials.

[14]  Aslihan Babayigit,et al.  Assessing the toxicity of Pb- and Sn-based perovskite solar cells in model organism Danio rerio , 2016, Scientific Reports.

[15]  Aldo Di Carlo,et al.  High efficiency photovoltaic module based on mesoscopic organometal halide perovskite , 2016 .

[16]  Y. Qi,et al.  Advances and challenges to the commercialization of organic–inorganic halide perovskite solar cell technology , 2017 .

[17]  Richard Corkish,et al.  A life cycle assessment of perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells , 2017 .

[18]  P. Lund,et al.  Device stability of perovskite solar cells – A review , 2017 .

[19]  M. Heben,et al.  Environmental analysis of perovskites and other relevant solar cell technologies in a tandem configuration , 2017 .

[20]  Joseph J. Berry,et al.  Stability in Perovskite Photovoltaics: A Paradigm for Newfangled Technologies , 2018, ACS Energy Letters.

[21]  Zhen Li,et al.  Outlook and Challenges of Perovskite Solar Cells toward Terawatt-Scale Photovoltaic Module Technology , 2018, Joule.

[22]  Kai Zhu,et al.  Highly Efficient Perovskite Solar Modules by Scalable Fabrication and Interconnection Optimization , 2018 .

[23]  Martin A. Green,et al.  Solar cell efficiency tables (Version 53) , 2018, Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications.

[24]  Aslihan Babayigit,et al.  Environment versus sustainable energy: The case of lead halide perovskite-based solar cells , 2018 .

[25]  Edward H. Sargent,et al.  Challenges for commercializing perovskite solar cells , 2018, Science.

[26]  Kai Zhu,et al.  Scalable fabrication of perovskite solar cells , 2018 .

[27]  Ronn Andriessen,et al.  Up-scalable sheet-to-sheet production of high efficiency perovskite module and solar cells on 6-in. substrate using slot die coating , 2017, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells.

[28]  I. Mora‐Seró,et al.  Relative impacts of methylammonium lead triiodide perovskite solar cells based on life cycle assessment , 2017, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells.

[29]  H. Higuchi,et al.  Largest highly efficient 203 × 203 mm2 CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar modules , 2018, Japanese Journal of Applied Physics.

[30]  Yue Hu,et al.  Toward Industrial-Scale Production of Perovskite Solar Cells: Screen Printing, Slot-Die Coating, and Emerging Techniques. , 2018, The journal of physical chemistry letters.

[31]  A. Belyanovskaya,et al.  Improvement of calculations of the total Characterization factor in the USEtox model including a regional approach , 2019, Global NEST International Conference on Environmental Science & Technology.

[32]  T. Miyasaka,et al.  Halide Perovskite Photovoltaics: Background, Status, and Future Prospects. , 2019, Chemical reviews.

[33]  Maria Laura Parisi,et al.  Life cycle assessment of atmospheric emission profiles of the Italian geothermal power plants , 2019, Journal of Cleaner Production.

[34]  Maria Laura Parisi,et al.  Prospective life cycle assessment of third-generation photovoltaics at the pre-industrial scale: A long-term scenario approach , 2020 .