Environmental aspects of electricity generation from a nanocrystalline dyesensitized solar cell system

A Life Cycle Assessment, LCA, of a nanocrystalline dye sensitized solar cel l (ncDSC) system has been performed, according to the ISO14040 standard. In brief, LCA is a tool to analyse the total environmental impact of a produc t or system from cradle to grave. Six different weighing methods were used to rank and select the significant environmental aspects to study further. The most significant environmental aspects according to the weighing method s are emission of sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide emissi on was selected as the environmental indicator depending on the growing att ention on the global warming effect. In an environmental comparison of elec tricity generation from a ncDSC system and a natural gas/combined cycle pow er plant, the gas power plant would result in 450 g CO2/kWh and the ncDSC s ystem in between 19-47 g CO2/kWh. The latter can be compared with 42 g CO2/ kWh, according to van Brummelen et al. "Life Cycle Assessment of Roof Integ rated Solar Cell Systems, (Report: Department of Science, Technology and So ciety, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, 1994)" for another thin film so lar eel system made of amorphous silicon. The most significant activity/com ponent contributing to environmental impact over the Life cycle of the ncDS C system is the process energy for producing the solar cell module. Secondl y comes the components; glass substrate, frame and junction box. The main i mprovement from an environmental point of view of the current technology wo uld be an increase in the conversion efficiency from solar radiation to ele ctricity generation and still use low energy demanding production technolog ies. Also the amount of material in the solar cell system should be minimis ed and designed to maximise recycling. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All r ights reserved.