Recycling of Thin Film Solar Cell Modules - LCA and ECO2 Case Study

Author

Shibasaki, M. ; Warburg, N. ; Eyerer, P.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Life Cycle Eng., Stuttgart Univ.

fYear

2005

Firstpage

310

Lastpage

311

Abstract

Today, solar energy is seen as one of the auspicious renewable energy sources. At the beginning of solar cells history in the 1950th, solar cells were labeled as adverse due to their high energy payback time and low efficiency, therefore their application were limited to aeronautic and astronautic fields as well as to small applications such as pocket calculators. Recent developments resulted in the improvement of the energy efficiency of solar cell modules, as a result, the solar cell modules became more competitive to other renewable energy resources. In this paper the EU funded project SENSE is presented, which aim is to develop a recycling system for thin film solar cells. An accompanying LCA study shows the environmental impact of the considered solar cell systems

Keywords

electronic products; energy conservation; environmental factors; recycling; solar cells; solar power; thin film devices; ECO2; EU project SENSE; LCA; PV-system; aeronautic-astronautic field; energy efficiency; environmental impact; life cycle assessment; pocket calculator; recycling; renewable energy sources; solar energy; thin film solar cell module; Chemical technology; Computer aided software engineering; Europe; Photovoltaic cells; Production; Recycling; Renewable energy resources; Solar energy; Solar power generation; Transistors; ECO2; LCA; PV-System; Recycling; Thin film Solar Cells;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Environmentally Conscious Design and Inverse Manufacturing, 2005. Eco Design 2005. Fourth International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Tokyo

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0081-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ECODIM.2005.1619234

Filename

1619234