Environmental Health and Safety Impacts of Photovoltaic Technology

Project Manager: Lo Cheng & Kelly Vandeligt
Science and Technology Branch, Environment Canada

Introduction

The IEA’s 2010 roadmap identifies the next decade as a critical time window to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies such as solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies. In Canada, Ontario’s Green Energy Act (September 2009) provides feed-in tariffs for solar projects and is stimulating deployment. Between 2006 and 2011, the installed PV capacity in Canada grew from 20.48 MW to 558.74 MW. In addition, the cost of PV modules has steadily decreased from $5.36/Watt to $1.52/Watt in the same period. In order to achieve further cost reductions and efficiency improvements, R&D will aim to improve existing technologies and develop new ones.

Activities & Results

Collaboration with national and international experts on PV technologies
In May 2011, the project was introduced at the Annual Photovoltaic Industry Forum held by the National Science and Engineering Research Council’s Photovoltaic Innovation Network. The forum offered an opportunity to discuss the planned assessment of the environmental and health issues surrounding solar Photovoltaic technology with industry stakeholders. Stakeholders at the forum expressed support for an assessment of this type. In March 2012, the findings of the assessment and case study were presented to project partners and collaborators, including partners from CanmetENERGY, and collaborators from 5N+, one of the world’s largest suppliers of cadmium telluride. 5N+ is undertaking a collaboration with the International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme Task 12 on recycling of cadmium telluride photovoltaic modules.

Environmental Health and Safety of Photovoltaic Technology
The key output of the project was the technology assessment report entitled “Environmental Health and Safety of Photovoltaic Technology” that examines the environmental benefits and impacts of solar photovoltaic technology across its full life cycle (from cradle to grave), including energy payback; emissions of greenhouse gas, air pollution, heavy metals; water quality and use; and landscape and ecology. The report also provides a comparison of solar photovoltaic technology to other conventional energy-generating technologies and discusses areas for further research. This output delivers the immediate outcome of the project: “the availability of scientific knowledge to assess the environmental health and safety of PV technology to guide Canadian research”.

Canadian Life-Cycle Analysis Case Study of Solar PV Technology
Another key output of the project was the Canadian life-cycle analysis case study of solar photovoltaic technology completed by the centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur le cycle de vie des produits, procédés et services (CIRAIG). The case study followed the International Organization for Standardization 14040 and 14044 guidelines for life-cycle analysis. It used available Canadian data on solar photovoltaic manufacturing and operations and the European ecoinvent database, and was conducted using SimaPro life-cycle assessment software.

Discussion & Next Steps

The environmental assessment carried out in this project was designed to enhance the scientific and technical understanding of solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies and to help support the development of effective public policy, regulations and federal investment decisions. It answers many issues raised about the environmental benefits and impacts associated with solar PV electricity generation in Canada.

For example, the Energy payback time (EPBT) is defined as the period required for a renewable energy system to generate the same amount of energy (total primary energy equivalent) that was used to produce the system itself. Table 1 shows that the EPBT of multicrystalline Silicon PV systems operating in Canada ranges between 2-3 years. As PV systems have an operational lifetime of approximately 30 years, these systems will generate between 10 to 15 times the energy that was used to produce them.

Table 1. Summary of reported Energy payback times for PV Technologies in Canada [1]

Technology Type	Installation Type	EPBT (years)	Efficiency (%)	Global Horizontal Insolation (kWh/m2 per year)	Performance Ratio
Multicrystalline Silicon	Rooftop	2.13	Not reported	1 377 (Ottawa)	0.75
Multicrystalline Silicon	Façade	3.06	Not reported	1 377 (Ottawa)	0.75
Multicrystalline Silicon	Rooftop	2.32	Not reported	1 273 (Vancouver)	0.75
Multicrystalline Silicon	Façade	3.44	Not reported	1 273 (Vancouver)	0.75

• By building on the International Energy Agency’s Photovoltaic Power System Programme task 12 collaborative research efforts on photovoltaic environmental health and safety. This agreement includes 10 participating countries, including Canada. 5N+, who have collaborated on this project, is the Canadian industrial representation on the Photovoltaic Power System Programme. The technology assessment report could be used by the Photovoltaic Power System Programme task 12 group to provide credible and defensible knowledge on the environmental performance of photovoltaic technology.

The methodology developed can now be applied to provide guidance to researchers of the NSERC PV Innovation Network for the development of novel and emerging PV technologies (e.g. generation III and IV photovoltaic technologies on figure 1) taking into consideration environmental impacts. The NSERC Photovoltaic Innovation Network, an academic network of 29 Canadian scientists at 13 universities, develops novel and emerging solar cell technologies in collaboration with 18 manufacturing companies and 2 federal research centers (NRC and CanmetENERGY). In addition, its objective over the 2010-2015 timeframe is to build a cohesive Canadian research community with academic excellence, strong training opportunities, establish linkages to the international PV research community and support Canadian companies in developing sustainable solar energy systems for domestic use and global export.

Budget

2010-2012

Env. Canada CEF ($k)	Other Federal ($k)	External in-kind ($k)	External Cash ($k)	Leverage (%)
135	180	5	0	137

Project Team

• Lo Cheng, Kelly Vandeligt, Tony Kosteltz, Samina Essajee (S&T Branch, Environment Canada)
• Sophie Pelland, Yves Poissant, Josef Ayoub (CanmetENERGY, Natural Resources Canada)
• Marc Suys (5N+, Industry)
• Vasilis Fthenakis (Convenor, IEA PVPS Task 12 - PV Environmental Health and Safety, US)
• Jean-François Ménard, Shirley Fagnen, Renée Michaud (CIRAIG, Academia)

References & Publications

1. “Environmental Health and Safety of Photovoltaic Technology” Technology assessment report prepared by Environment Canada and Natural Resources Canada, October 2012.
2. “Analyse du cycle de vie des technologies photovoltaïques au Canada” Internal technical report prepared by the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur le cycle de vie des produits, procédés et services (CIRAIG), June 2012.
3. “Life Cycle Inventories and Life-Cycle Assessments of Photovoltaic Systems” Report IEA-PVPS T12-02:2011, IEA PVPS Task 12, August 2011.