Abstract
A number of articles have already been published on energy recovery from the sun using solar panels and their environmental impacts. However, in this article, we assess the impact of solar panel technology, and use separately obtained data based on the disassembly of a specific photovoltaic panel into discrete parts. The aim of this article is to list all the environmental impacts of this panel per unit of energy produced and at the same time to focus primarily on deciphering the energy intensity of individual phases of the life cycle of photovoltaic panel production. An analytical method of Life-cycle assessment using the environmental software version SimaPro 9.0.049 with an integrated Ecoinvent 3 database was used to determine the environmental impacts. Throughout the work, we focus on the data obtained, which shows that the process of photovoltaic panel production itself is very energy-intensive, especially in the phase of photovoltaic cell production and solar glass production. In other phases, which is the production of individual parts of the photovoltaic panel, its use, and subsequent recycling, they do not contribute so much to the overall energy balance. In the environmental impact assessment, the most affected aspects were human health, followed by climatic change, resources, and the ecosystem quality came last. In all four of the above categories, the influence of the photovoltaic cell production phase was determined to be dominant.
Life-cycle assessment of a photovoltaic panel: Assessment of energy intensity of production and environmental impacts
