Journal of Cleaner Production 86 (2015) 180e190

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Journal of Cleaner Production

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro

Life-cycle assessment of multi-crystalline photovoltaic (PV) systems in

China
Yinyin Fu, Xin Liu, Zengwei Yuan*
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 12 February 2014
Received in revised form
18 July 2014
Accepted 23 July 2014
Available online 1 August 2014

This study performs a life-cycle assessment for a photovoltaic (PV) system with multi-crystalline silicon
(multi-Si) modules in China. It considers the primary energy demand, energy payback time (EPBT), and
environmental impacts, such as global warming potential and eutrophication, over the entire life cycle of
the PV system, including the upstream process, ranging from silica extraction to the multi-Si purication,
the midstream process, involving crystalline silicon ingot growth and wafering; and the downstream
process, consisting of cell and module fabrication. The data were collected with recommendations
provided by the ISO norms and acquired from typical PV companies in China. The results show that the
most critical phase of life cycle of Chinese PV system was the transformation of metallic silicon into solar
silicon, which was characterized by high electricity consumption, representing most of the environmental impact. The other electricity generation systems were compared to PV. Considering that Chinese
electricity is mainly produced by coal-red power plants, the installation of multi-Si PV systems is
recommended over exporting them from China. Furthermore, being higher solar radiation areas, areas in
western China, such as the Tibet Autonomous Region, northeastern Qinghai, and the western borders of
Gansu, are best suited for the installation of the PV systems even if the long distance of transportation.
Finally, recommendations were provided with respect to the sustainable development of the Chinese PV
industry and environmental protection.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Life-cycle assessment
Multi-Si PV system
Energy payback time
Environmental impacts
Environmental management

1. Introduction
Solar energy is the most abundant and the most widely
distributed renewable energy in the world. With advances in
technology and reduction in production cost (Li et al., 2009), solar
power has become a renewable energy technology that can be
developed and used on a large scale. In the situation where problems of energy security and climate change are becoming increasingly serious, solar power has received large amounts of attention
throughout the world (Bhandari and Stadler, 2011; Hondo and
Baba, 2010), especially in Europe. The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) estimated that the global crystallinesilicon (c-Si) cell production capacity was approximately
27e28 GW in 2010, almost 50% of which was located in China (EPIA,
2011). As the largest exporter of solar cells in the world, China has
developed a complete photovoltaic manufacturing industrial chain

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 86 25 89680532.

E-mail address: yuanzw@nju.edu.cn (Z.W. Yuan).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.07.057
0959-6526/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

consisting of silicon materials, components, and equipment and

application systems. However, in the past two years, driven by the
nancial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis, there was a
sharp decline in demand in the global photovoltaic (PV) market,
which created a serious situation for the Chinese PV industry
because more than 90% of Chinese PV products depended on international markets. As a result, there was huge overcapacity in the
Chinese PV industry, and prots dropped signicantly in 2011. More
than 50% of small and medium-sized companies were forced out of
production. To make matters worse, the United States and European Union registered a double reverse (anti-dumping and antisubsidy) investigation into Chinese PV products in 2012 (Ling,
2012), which made it more difcult to export Chinese PV products. In response to both domestic overcapacity and the shrinking
of foreign markets, the Chinese PV industry will inevitably regulate
the market distribution and expand the domestic market.
Regarding the operation process, the PV technology can be
considered almost completely clean. However, when considering
the entire life cycle of the PV system, from silica mining to system
installation, the energy consumption and emissions to

Y. Fu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 86 (2015) 180e190

environment cannot be ignored. In today's China, the environmental problems behind Green Solar received attention. Because
most of the PV cells in China are made of polycrystalline silicon (Li
and Wang, 2011), whose production process involves the continuous purication of industrial silicon, consuming large amounts of
energy and producing heavy pollution (Ye, 2011). In December
2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the
People's Republic of China, the National Development and Reform
Commission, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the
People's Republic of China jointly issued Polycrystalline silicon
industry access conditions, which proposed stricter standards for
production inputs, energy consumption, and pollution emissions of
the PV industry (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
of China, 2010). In fact, for the PV industry, apart from the process of polycrystalline silicon production, other processes, such as
quartz mining, metallurgical silicon production, cell and module
production, and the disposal of end-of-life PV systems, also
contribute substantially to environmental pollution and energy
consumption (Phylipsen and Alsema, 1995). Therefore, it is necessary to quantify the resource consumption and environmental
impacts of PV technology from a life-cycle perspective to determine
whether the production of this PV system is environmentally
friendly. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method of compiling and
evaluating the inputs, outputs, and environmental impacts of a
product or service system throughout its life cycle (ISO14044,
2006).
The earliest research on PV system from the life-cycle
perspective can be traced to the 1970s, in which the energy use
in the production of solar cells from materials to the nished
product was evaluated. The results showed that the energy payback
time (EPBT) for terrestrial mono-crystalline silicon (mono-Si)solar
cells that time was 12 years (Hunt, 1976), less than its lifetime. The
concerns about the environmental impacts of PV power systems
are growing with the increasing use of PV technologies. As a result,
an increasing number of LCA studies on the EPBT and environmental impacts of PV technologies have been conducted (Ashraf
and Chandra, 2005; Dones and Frischknecht, 1998; Frankl et al.,
1998; Phylipsen and Alsema, 1995), but they have mainly focused
on EPBT and only specic emissions (Baumann et al., 1997;
Fthenakis et al., 2008; Lu and Yang, 2010; Zhang et al., 2012),
especially greenhouse gases (Alsema, 2000; Kannan et al., 2006;
Kato et al., 1998; Krauter and Ruther, 2004; Zhai and Williams,
2010). The EBPT and GHG emission rates for multi-Si PV systems
vary by the location and time in which they were manufactured and
installed (Fthenakis and Alsema, 2006; Peng et al., 2013; Sherwani
et al., 2010). The results of previous studies had shown that the
EBPT of multi-Si was in the range of 1.5e7.5 years, and the GHG
emission rate was in the range of 12e170 g CO2-equivalent/kWh
(Sumper et al., 2011). More recent study showed that the estimated
energy payback times of the Amonix 7700 PV system in operation
was only 0.9 year, and its estimated GHG emissions were 27 g CO2eq./kWh over 30 years, or approximately 16 g CO2-eq./kWh over 50
years. The energy payback time at an in-plane irradiation of
1700 kWh/(m2 year) could be reduced to below 0.5 years by 2020,
less than half of the current (Fthenakis and Kim, 2013).
However, few studies have considered other environmental
impacts, such as biological toxicity, acidication potential, and
eutrophication potential (Jungbluth, 2005; Koroneos et al., 2006;
Tsoutsos et al., 2005). Fewer studies have been based on the current state-of-the-art PV systems produced or installed within China
(Ito et al., 2003; Nishimura et al., 2010). Because it is difcult to
compare different studies of PV systems due to the difference in
time and location of installation and technological level (Fthenakis
and Alsema, 2006), it is important to study the life-cycle environmental impacts of multi-Si PV systems based on current Chinese

181

technology, and the data should be collected from Chinese companies and the Chinese government.
This paper evaluated the energy payback time and important
environmental impacts of multi-Si PV systems produced and used
in China. Based on the results, we examined the instruments to
mitigate the environmental impacts of the PV industry in China,
explored the pollution transfer and environmental responsibility
distribution based on the transnational trade of PV products, and
nally made suggestions for the sustainable development of the
Chinese PV industry.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. System boundary and description
The goal of this study was to quantitatively assess the life-cycle
environmental impacts of PV systems in China and provide a scientic basis for policy-making regarding the sustainable development of Chinese PV industry.
The system boundary of the research was shown in Fig. 1, which
included upstream processes, ranging from silica extraction to the
crystalline silicon bar and ingot growth, and midstream processes,
which involved cell and module fabrication as well as aluminum
frame production. We didn't consider the balance of system (BOS)
due to its dependence on the installation and the little inuence on
environmental impacts. For a rooftop PV application, the BOS
typically includes inverters, mounting structures, cable and connectors. Large-scale ground-mounted PV installations require
additional equipment and facilities, such as grid connections, ofce
facilities, and concrete (Fthenakis and Kim, 2011). Previous studies
show that, BOS accounted for additional ~0.2 years of EPBT of multiSi PV system, ~5 g CO2-eq/kWh of GHG emissions, ~10 mg/kWh of
NOx emissions and ~18 mg/kWh of SOx emissions (de WildScholten and Alsema, 2005).
The environmental impacts of infrastructure for processing facilities per unit of electricity was not considered, which might lead
to underestimation of the environmental impact caused by PV
systems (Cabezaa et al., 2014). However, due to long-term use of
infrastructure for processing facilities and large production capacity during their life cycle, there was little effect on the environmental impacts per unit of electricity (Le Tong et al., 2013).
Because multi-Si PV systems accounted for most Chinese PV
products, we would study multi-Si silicon PV technology as being
representative of the Chinese PV industry. Generally, the life cycle
of a product refers the period ranging from its manufacture, use,
and maintenance to its nal disposal. However, the use and
maintenance of PV systems was not taken into account because
the data were unavailable and these stages consumed few resources and had a weak environmental impact (Dones and
Frischknecht, 1998). Moreover, Chinese PV markets did not
develop rapidly until 2002 (Sun et al., 2010), and the lifespan of a
PV system is generally more than 25 years. Therefore, almost all
PV systems in China today have not reached their end-of-life stage,
and no mature end-of-life management technology and mechanisms currently exist in China. Thus, it is impossible to obtain
accurate data for this stage in China which might slightly underestimate the primary energy demand and environmental impacts.
However, this underestimation can be omitted because the endof-life disposal accounted for only 1.7% of the total primary energy demand and 1.9% of the total GHG emissions (Kim and
Fthenakis, 2006).
In addition, the transport modes and distances of different PV
projects varied strongly, making them difcult to evaluate. As a
result, this study mainly considered the manufacturing stage of the
multi-Si PV system, especially that of the PV module, which was the

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Y. Fu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 86 (2015) 180e190

Fig. 1. Life cycle of a multi-Si PV system.

most important and distinctive part of a PV system. And the

transportation of PV modules would be discussed later.
The functional unit of the LCA study was 1 kWh based on a
multi-Si PV module with a capacity of 200 Wp. It was assumed that
the average number of peak sunshine hours in China was 1300 and
the lifespan of a PV system was 25 years. In fact, the lifespan of PV
systems was usually lower than that due to the poor maintenance,
which might lead to an underestimate of primary energy demand
and environmental impacts per kWh generated by PV systems in
China. The characteristics of the modules were shown in Table 1.
2.2. Data sources and LCA inventory
The inventory data, including the material consumption and
environmental emissions involved in the production of solar-grade
silicon, wafers, ingots, cells, and modules, were mainly collected
from companies that represent the current domain multi-Si PV
technologies in China. The energy consumption data referred to the
report Clean Production of Solar PV in China (Li and Chang, 2012).
The data of MG-Si production was from literature about MG-Si

Table 1
Characteristics of the module in this study.
Item

Description

Module size
Mass
Frame
Front glass
EVA sheet thickness
Wafer thickness
Number of cells per module
Cell area
Efciency of cells
Operation life
Annual solar radiation
Open circuit voltage (Voc)
Optimum operating voltage (Vmp)
Short-circuit current (Isc)
Optimum operating current (Imp)
Maximum power at STCa (Pmax)
Operating temperature
Maximum system voltage
Maximum series fuse rating
Power tolerance

1482  992  35 mm
16.8 kg
Aluminum alloy
Tempering glass 3.2 mm
0.5 mm
200 mm 20 mm
54 (6  9)
156  156 mm2
16%
25years
4680 MJ m2 a1
33.4 V
26.2 V
8.12 A
7.63 A
200 Wp
40  C to 85  C
1000 V DC
20 A
3%

STC: irradiance 1000/m2; module temperature 25  C; AM 1.5.

produced in China (Ye, 2008). Some important parameters and

data resources of the life cycle of multi-Si PV power production
were shown in Table 2. For the calculation, these data were
implemented into the model built with software GaBi4, which was
able to perform life-cycle calculations and includes access to a rich
database, and could be compatible with the Ecoinvent database.
The upstream data for energy and other auxiliary materials were
from this database.
Some simplications and assumptions had been made for processes that were not in the database, which were substituted by
other similar processes included in the GaBi4 or Ecoinvent database. For example, in the pickling stage of cells, the production of
32% hydrochloric acid was used instead of that of 37% hydrochloric
acid. The anhydrous alcohol was replaced by 96% ethanol in the
model since there was no process of anhydrous alcohol in the
database. The 70% nitric acid was substituted by 60% nitric acid
since their processes were similar and there was no process of 70%
nitric acid in the database. The 21% KOH solution was modeled by
process of potassium hydroxide and water due to lacking process of
21% KOH in the database.
The production processes of PV modules included solar-grade
multi-Si (SoG-Si) production, ingot casting, wafer slicing, and cell
processing and module assembly (see Supporting information). The
effect of product transportation was not considered here and will
be discussed later.
2.3. Life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA)
Life-cycle impact assessment (LCIA) aimed to understand and
evaluate the magnitude and signicance of the potential environmental impacts for a product system throughout its life cycle. LCIA
consists of both mandatory and optional elements. The former
include selection of impact categories, category indicators and
characterization models, assignment of the inventory data to the
selected impact categories (classication) and calculation of impact
category indicators using characterization factors (characterization). The later include calculation of the magnitude of category
indicator results relative to reference values (normalization),
grouping and weighting the results, and data quality analysis.
Impact categories include climate change, stratospheric ozone
depletion, photo oxidant formation (smog), eutrophication, acidication, water use, noise, etc. Here, we considered the potential
environmental impacts of acidication, eutrophication, climate

Y. Fu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 86 (2015) 180e190

183

Table 2
Key parameters of the life cycle inventory for multi-Si PV power production.
Flows
Metallurgical silicon smelting
Inputs
Quartz sand
Standard coal
Outputs
Silicon (99%)
Carbon dioxide emissions to air
Carbon monoxide emissions to air
Slag from MG silicon production for disposal
Nitrogen oxides emissions to air
Silicon dioxide emissions to air
Sulfur dioxide emissions to air
Solar grade multi-Si purication
Inputs
Metallurgical silicon (>99%)
Calcium oxide
Hydrochloric acid (30%)
Hydrouoric acid (20%)
Hydrogen (>99.8%)
Nitric acid (35%)
Nitrogen gaseous
Silicon tetrachloride (>99%)
Sodium hydroxide (20%)
Water
Electricity
Steam
Outputs
Solar grade multi-Si
COD emissions to water
Chlorosilane emissions to air
Hydrogen chloride emissions to air
Hydrogen uoride emissions to air
Nitrogen dioxide emissions to air
Silicon dust to air
Silicon dust (99%) for recovery
Silicon tetrachloride emissions to air
Suspended solids to fresh water
Trichlorosilane emissions to air
Water (evapotranspiration) emissions to air
Ingot casting
Inputs
Solar grade multi-Si
Silicon carbide
Quartz crucible
Argon
Hydrouoric acid (49%)
Compressed air
Sodium hydroxide
Water
Electricity
Steam
Outputs
Multi-Si ingot
Hydrogen uoride emissions to air
Silicon carbide
Waste acid
Waste quartz crucible for recovery
Water (evapotranspiration) to air
Wafer slicing
Inputs
Multi-Si ingot
Glass
Silicon carbide
Steel wire
Acetic acid
Detergent
Compressed air
Water
Electricity
Outputs
Multi-Si Wafer
Acetic acid
Glass

Data sources

20.48 kg
45.40 kg
6.08 kg
132.91 kg
1.70 kg
4.38 kg
279.55 g
1.70 kg
0.79 kg

LCA Study of Metallurgical Silicon Process (Ye, 2008)

6.08 kg
6.52 kg
2.93 kg
0.06 kg
0.50 kg
0.22 kg
71.16 kg
8.29 kg
4.81 kg
10,396.87 kg
2287.25 MJ
385.02 kg

Companies that represent the current domain PV technologies in China

Clean Production of Solar PV in China (Li and Chang, 2012)

5.52 kg
82.21 g
28.56 g
36.24 g
0.22 g
3.15 g
8.29 g
0.83 kg
9.23 g
54.81 g
31.33 g
5991.76 kg

Companies that represent the current domain PV technologies in China

5.52 kg
61.92 g
15.37 kg
10.5 kg
254.03 g
18.76 m3
46.88 g
492.47 kg
157.54 MJ
7.60 kg

Companies that represent the current domain PV technologies in China

5.47 kg
0.60 g
61.43 g
348.72 g
15.37 kg
375.08 kg

Companies that represent the current domain PV technologies in China

5.47 kg
2.47 kg
175.78 g
17.11 kg
0.60 kg
2.23 kg
29.05 m3
528.63 kg
24.01 MJ

Companies that represent the current domain PV technologies in China

3.34 kg
0.60 kg
2.47 kg

Companies that represent the current domain PV technologies in China

Clean Production of Solar PV in China (Li and Chang, 2012)

Clean Production of Solar PV in China (Li and Chang, 2012)

(continued on next page)

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Y. Fu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 86 (2015) 180e190

Table 2 (continued )
Flows
Glue residues for disposal
Silicon scrap for recovery
Waste water
Cell processing
Inputs
Multi-Si Wafer
Ammonia
Ethanol (99.7%)
Hydrochloric acid (37%)
Hydrouoric acid
Nitric acid (70%)
Nitrogen
Phosphoric acid (85%)
KOH (21%)
Silver
Aluminum
Water
Natural gas
Electricity
Steam
Outputs
Multi-Si Solar cell
Ammonia emissions to air
Hydrogen chloride emissions to air
Hydrogen uoride emissions to air
Nitrogen oxides emissions to air
NMVOC to air
Water
Modules assembly
Inputs
Multi-Si solar cell
Glass
Aluminum
Polyethylene terephthalate part (PET)
Polyvinyl uoride lm (PVF)
Ethanol
Ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA)
Isopropanol
Water
Steam
Electricity
Outputs
Solar panels
Activated carbon (charged) for recovery
Water (evapotranspiration) emissions to air
Water emissions to fresh water

Data sources
243.28 g
2.07 kg
336.94 kg

3.34 kg
88.10 g
0.23 kg
2.57 kg
0.78 kg
1.43 kg
7.62 kg
9.31 g
2.76 kg
67.90 g
0.38 kg
866.04 kg
0.59 kg
686.69 MJ
26.15 kg

Companies that represent the current domain PV technologies in China

1.09 kW
7.86 g
4.92 g
3.93 g
61.00 g
34.64 g
888.13 kg

Companies that represent the current domain PV technologies in China

1.09 kW
63.26 kg
11.77 kg
3.27 kg
3.27 kg
56.97 g
7.52 kg
17.67 g
118.04 kg
16.22 kg
72.00 MJ

Companies that represent the current domain PV technologies in China

1.00 kW
61.11 g
94.26 kg
23.78 kg

Companies that represent the current domain PV technologies in China

change, human toxicity, ozone depletion, and photochemical ozone

creation. The characterization involves the conversion of LCI results
to common units and the aggregation of the converted results
within the same impact category. The conversion uses characterization factors, which are typically the output of characterization
models. The outcome of the calculation is a numerical indicator
result. The aim of the normalization is to understand better the
relative magnitude for each indicator result of the product system.
Grouping is the assignment of impact categories into one or more
sets, and it may involve sorting and ranking. Weighting is the
process of converting and possibly aggregating indicator results
across impact categories using numerical factors based on valuechoices.
Various LCIA methods have been developed and are currently
available in the database of LCA dedicated software on the market.
The methods include life cycle environmental impact assessment,
environmental design of industrial products (EDIP), tool for the
reduction and assessment of chemical and other environmental
impacts (TRACI), and ecological scarcity (Cavalett et al., 2013). The
CML is a problem-oriented LCA method developed by the Institute
of Environmental Sciences of the University of Leiden (CML), which
aims to offer best practice for midpoint indicators and operationalizes the ISO 14040 series of standards. CML includes

Clean Production of Solar PV in China (Li and Chang, 2012)

Clean Production of Solar PV in China (Li and Chang, 2012)

recommended methods for normalization but weighting is not

e, 2001). CML2001-Dec.07.World was chosen in our
included (Guine
research to assess the environmental impacts of the PV system per
kWh, and acidication potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP),

Fig. 2. Primary energy demands from renewable and nonrenewable resources [MJ/
kWh].

Y. Fu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 86 (2015) 180e190

185

Table 3
Annual power generation and the EPBT of the PV system (200 Wp) in China.

Peak sunshine hoursa (h)

Annual power generation (MJ)
EPBT (years)
a

First-class areas

Second-class areas

Third-class areas

Fourth-class areas

Fifth-class areas

1855.6e2100
1001.3e1134.4
2.22e2.52

1625e1855.6
877.5e1001.3
2.52e2.87

1388.9e1625
750e877.5
2.87e3.3.36

1166.7e1388.9
630e750
3.36e4

772.2e1166.7
416.3e630
4e6.05

The peak sunshine hours refers to the equivalent number of hours per year when solar irradiance averages 1 kW/m2 and is calculated using annual solar radiation.

3. Results

primary energy demand of cells production accounted for 19% of

the total, and that of ingots accounted for 5%. The direct energy
demand of the entire PV system accounted for more than 50% of the
total primary energy demand, which was mainly due to electricity
consumption.
The EPBT was a frequently used parameter because of its
inputeoutput format and its easy interpretation. The simplied
calculation method was as follows.

3.1. Primary energy demand and energy payback time (EPBT)

EPBT Total primary energy demandMJ

global warming potential (GWP 100 years), human toxicity potential (HTP), ozone layer depletion potential (ODP), and photochemical ozone creation potential (POCP) were taken into account. The
LCA software GaBi (version 4.3) developed by PE-International was
applied to help establish the LCA model and to perform the
calculations.

=Annual power generationMJ=year

Based on the data collected in China and with the help of GaBi,
the total primary energy demand from renewable and nonrenewable resources (net calorie value) of the PV system was calculated as
0.517 MJ/kWh, as shown in Fig. 2. That is to say, the primary energy
demand of a multi-Si PV system of 200 Wp in China was 2522 MJ.
Flows accounting for less than 0.1% were ignored in the
calculations.
The primary energy demands were mainly nonrenewable energy resources, including hard coal, crude oil, and natural gas,
because the production stages, especially the production of solargrade multi-Si and cells, consumed a lot of electricity generated
in China, which was mainly produced by coal-red power plants
(National Energy Administration of China, 2012). Crude oil and
natural gas were mainly consumed in the module assembly stage,
wherein the manufacture of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) copolymer, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) lm, and polyvinyl uoride
(PVF) lm consumed most of the crude oil and natural gas. And the
primary energy demand of module assembly accounted for 25% of
the total. Moreover, the stage of solar-grade multi-Si production
contributed most (approximately 48.5%) to the total primary energy demand, which was mainly due to the large amounts of
electricity required in the process. The stages of cell processing and
ingot casting were similar, whose primary energy demand was also
mainly due to the use of electricity generated by hard coal. The

Fig. 3. Acidication potential [kg SO2-equivalent/kWh].

Annual power generation PowerW*Peak sunshine hoursh

*Performance ratio
(2)
Because China receives a wide range of solar radiation
(2780e7560 MJ m2 a1) due to its large land area, the annual solar
radiation differs by location within China (Lu et al., 2010). As a
result, the annual power generation and the EPBT of a PV system are
not the same due to the different location. Considering the losses of
the PV module-wiring-inverter-transformer system and the other
effect, the performance ratio of multi-Si PV system in China was
usually 0.75 (Kawajiri et al., 2011). The annual power generation
and the EPBT of the PV system with capacity of 200 W which was
located in different areas of China were evaluated (shown in
Table 3). Chinese ve-class areas with different solar radiation are
shown in S3 of Supporting information.
The results show that, wherever in China the multi-Si PV system
installed, the EPBT was far less than its lifespan. It was best to install
these systems in the rst-class areas, where it took only approximately 2 years to pay back the energy consumed during its lifecycle stages. Even for installation in the worst (fth-class) areas,
the EPBT was only 6 years. Thus, the development of PV systems in

Fig. 4. Eutrophication potential [kg PO3

4 -equivalent/kWh].

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Y. Fu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 86 (2015) 180e190

Fig. 7. Ozone layer depletion potential [kg R11-equivalent/kWh].

Fig. 5. Global warming potential (GWP100years) [kgCO2-equivalent/kWh].

China was practical from the aspect of energy. What about other
types of environmental impact?
3.2. Environmental impacts
The AP for the PV system was 4.27E-4 kg SO2-equivalent/kWh,
which was almost completely dominated by emissions to air, as
shown in Fig. 3.
Sulfur dioxide contributed the most (approximately 73.4%),
which was mainly due to the electricity consumed in each stage,
especially the production stage of solar-grade poly-Si, because
Chinese electricity is mainly generated by coal-red power plants,
which emit large amounts of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
The EP of the PV system was 4.23E-5 kg PO3
4 -equivalent/kWh,
which was dominated by emissions to air and fresh water, including
nitrogen oxides, phosphate, and nitrate, as shown in Fig. 4.
The phosphate emissions to the fresh water accounted for 45.6%,
mainly stemming from the production of Chinese electricity used in
almost all the life-cycle stages of the PV system, because Chinese
electricity is mainly generated by coal-red power plants, and the
stages of coal mining and power generation emit phosphate to
water. The emission of nitrogen oxides to air accounted for 44.4%,
mainly due to the use of electricity and steam. The reason was also

Fig. 6. Human toxicity potential [kg DCB-equivalent/kWh].

that Chinese electricity and steam were mainly generated by coal,

which emitted large amounts of nitrogen oxides. However, in the
module production stage, the PVF lm, aluminum frame, and EVA
were the main contributors to the EP because they emitted phosphate and nitrogen oxides during their life cycles. Moreover, accounting for only 5%, the others category, which included
ammonia, nitrogen dioxide, nitrous oxide emissions to air, biological oxygen demand (BOD), total organic bounded carbon, ammonium emissions to fresh water, and the slight emissions to seawater
and industrial soil, was negligible.
The calculated GWP of a PV system was 5.09E-2 kgCO2-equivalent/kWh, which was dominated by carbon dioxide (83.6%) and
methane (11.2%), as shown in Fig. 5.
The most critical phases were the production of solar-grade
poly-Si, accounting for approximately 50% of the GWP, due to its
high electricity and steam consumption. The cell production also
represented an important contribution (20.5%) to GWP because of
its electricity consumption. The reason was also that Chinese
electricity was mainly generated by coal-red power plants, which
emit plenty of greenhouse gases. However, for the module production, the second highest contributor (22.8%) to GWP, materials
consumption had a greater impact than electricity consumption. In
fact, aluminum framing contributed 46.1% and PVF lm 26.4%,
while the electricity use contribution was only 8.2%, because the

Fig. 8. Photochemical ozone creation potential [kg ethene-equivalent/kWh].

Y. Fu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 86 (2015) 180e190

187

during cell production; and electricity and steam used in every

stage.
3.3. Normalization

Fig. 9. Normalization results of environmental impacts per Wp of different processes.

production process of aluminum and PVF produced plenty of CO2.

Note that there was a small negative emission of GWP, which
caused by the use of little CO2 during generation of Chinese
electricity.
The HTP of the PV system was 1.76E-2 kg DCB-equivalent/kWh,
which was dominated by the emissions to air and fresh water.
The emissions to air contributed 74.4%, including heavy metal,
inorganic, and organic emissions, as shown in Fig. 6. The heavy
metals included arsenic, chromium, nickel, and selenium, mainly
from the electricity and steam consumption of all the stages and the
use of materials in the module production stage. Because Chinese
electricity and steam were generated by coal, which including those
heavy metals and they were emitted when coal was burned. Inorganic emissions to air were mainly hydrogen uoride, also resulting
from the energy consumption. Organic emissions to air were
mainly polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins generated by the
disposal process of waste glass during wafer production. The
emissions to fresh water contribute 25.5% to the impact and were
mainly heavy metals, including selenium, vanadium (III), and
thallium, caused by electricity generation.
The ODP was 3.02E-9 kgR11-equivalent/kWh, dominated by
Halon (1301), carbon tetrachloride, and Halon (1211), as shown in
Fig. 7.
Halon (1301) contributed 67.8% to the impact, generated by the
production stages of modules and solar-grade poly-Si, during
which the aluminum frame and electricity were consumed.
Because Hanlon (1301) was emitted during the life cycle of the
aluminum and electricity in China. The Halon (1211) also came from
the module production process, during which the PVF lm
contributed the most. The carbon tetrachloride accounted for 15.6%
of the ODP due to emissions during the solar-grade poly-Si production phase, which also emitted most of the R12 and R22.
The evaluated POCP was 2.69E-5 kg ethane-equivalent/kWh,
dominated by inorganic and organic emissions to air, as shown in
Fig. 8.
Sulfur dioxide was the largest contributor to the impact, accounting for 56.1%, mostly due to the electricity and steam consumption of the production stages of solar-grade poly-Si, cells,
ingots and wafers, as well as the aluminum frame and PVF lm used
in the module production stage. The reason was that Chinese
electricity was mainly generated by coal-red power plants and the
coal in China included sulfur. The sulfur dioxide would be generated and emit when the coal was red. Nitrogen dioxide accounted
for 15%, and it had the same characteristics as sulfur dioxide. Nonmethane volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) were the second
contributor as a result of the consumption of the aluminum frame,
EVA, and PVF in module production; NMVOC emissions to air

The normalization results were shown in Fig. 9, which integrated different types of environmental impacts according to
different processes of PV system.
Acidication Potential was the biggest environmental impact of
the PV system, accounting for 40.6%, which mainly came from the
production stages of solar grade poly-Si, cells and modules. The
second contributor to the whole environment was Global Warming
Potential, accounting for 27.5%, which mainly produced in the
stages of solar grade poly-Si, cells and modules. The next were
POCP and HTP, accounting for 15.4% and 10.4%, respectively.
Comparing the environmental impacts of each processes, we found
that the production of solar grade poly-Si contributed the most to
the environment, which accounted for about 52.4% of the total
environmental effect. The next were processes of cells and modules, accounting for 20.1% and 18.6% respectively.
3.4. Sensitivity analyses
In this section, a sensitivity analysis of the primary energy demand and environmental impacts was conducted considering that
the processing technology was unchanged. The analysis was based
only on the characteristics of modules and solar radiation in Table 1.
The sensitivity analysis was conducted to nd out the effect of
the following factors on the energy demand and environmental
impacts: electricity and steam consumption during production of
solar grade poly-Si, glass consumption and disposal during process
of wafer slicing, electricity consumption during process of cells,
aluminum and glass consumption during modules assembly. The
results of the sensitivity analysis were presented in Table 4.
A 10% decrease in electricity consumption during solar grade
poly-Si production would lead to a 3.37% drop in the primary energy demand, whereas a 10% increase would lead to a 3.37% increase, correspondingly. Electricity consumption during solar grade
poly-Si production was the factor that had the most inuence on
the primary energy demand, Acidication Potential and Eutrophication Potential, followed by electricity consumption during cells
processing, steam consumption during solar grade poly-Si production, aluminum and glass consumption during modules assembly. Electricity consumption during solar grade poly-Si
production was also the factor that had the most inuence on the
Global Warming Potential and Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential, followed by electricity consumption during cells processing,
aluminum consumption during modules assembly, steam consumption during solar grade poly-Si production, and glass consumption during modules assembly. On Human Toxicity Potential,
electricity consumption during solar grade poly-Si production had
the most inuence, about 2.98%, followed by glass consumption
and disposal during wafer slicing (2.11%). Aluminum consumption
during modules assembly was the factor that had the most inuence on Ozone layer Depletion Potential, while 10% decrease on
aluminum consumption during modules assembly would lead to a
7.01% drop in the Ozone layer Depletion Potential.
4. Discussion
4.1. Comparison with other power generation systems in China
The Chinese power generation capacity came from coal-red
power (72.31%), hydropower (21.93%), wind power (4.35%), nuclear power (1.18%), solar-photovoltaic (0.21%), and others (0.02%)

188

Y. Fu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 86 (2015) 180e190

Table 4
Sensitivity analysis for important parameters.
Process

Parameter

Variation

Primary
energy
demand

Acidication
potential

Eutrophication
potential

Global
warming
potential

Human
toxicity
potential

Ozone layer
depletion
potential

Photochemical
ozone creation
potential

Solar grade
poly-Si

Electricity consumption

10%
10%
10%
10%
10%
10%
10%
10%
10%
10%
10%
10%

3.37%
3.37%
0.69%
0.69%
0.00%
0.00%
1.61%
1.61%
0.49%
0.49%
0.17%
0.17%

3.97%
3.97%
1.06%
1.06%
0.00%
0.00%
1.90%
1.90%
0.72%
0.72%
0.07%
0.07%

3.81%
3.81%
0.46%
0.46%
0.00%
0.00%
1.83%
1.83%
0.29%
0.29%
0.13%
0.13%

3.56%
3.56%
0.69%
0.69%
0.00%
0.00%
1.70%
1.70%
1.00%
1.00%
0.12%
0.12%

2.98%
2.98%
1.02%
1.02%
2.11%
2.11%
1.43%
1.43%
0.23%
0.23%
0.06%
0.06%

0.43%
0.43%
0.00%
0.00%
0.01%
0.01%
0.21%
0.21%
7.01%
7.01%
0.25%
0.25%

3.21%
3.21%
0.90%
0.90%
0.00%
0.00%
1.54%
1.54%
1.48%
1.48%
0.09%
0.09%

Steam consumption
Wafer slicing
Cells
Modules
assembly

Glass consumption and

disposal
Electricity consumption
Aluminum consumption
Glass consumption

Fig. 10. Primary energy and environmental impacts of different power generation systems in China.

(National Energy Administration of China, 2012). With the help of

GaBi4 software, we compared the energy demand and environmental impacts of PV systems with that of the other types of power
generation systems. The data from the other power systems was
collected from the GaBi4 database and the ecoinvent database,
supplemented by literature data. It was assumed that the average
number of peak sunshine hours in China was 1300 and the lifespan
of a PV system was 25 years, yielding 24 kWh per Wp during the PV
life cycle when located in China. The primary energy demand and
environmental impacts per kWh of electricity generated by PV and
other power generation systems in China were shown in Fig. 10.
The primary energy demand and environmental impacts per
kWh of a PV power through its life cycle were far less than those for
coal-red power in China. Of these types of electricity generation,
coal-red power demands almost the most primary energy and had
the largest environmental impact. Therefore, improving the proportion of PV and reducing that of coal-red power in the electricity
mix would reduce the primary energy demand and environmental
impacts of China's electricity mix. Taking the year of 2011 as an
example, electricity consumption of China was approximately

4693 billion kWh. If multi-Si PV systems completely replaced the

coal-red power plants, the primary energy demand would
decrease by 3.98E 13 MJ, and the mitigation of AP, EP, GWP, HTP,
and ODP would be 4.57E 10 kg SO2-equivalent,
3.96E 09 kg PO3
4 -equivalent, 4.75E 12 kg CO2-equivalent,
1.29E 12 kg DCB-equivalent, 7.06E 03 kgR11-equivalent, and
2.32E 09 kg ethane-equivalent, respectively. However, it's not
realistic to replace coal by PV in total China now due to the higher
economic cost of PV compared to coal-red generation, and some
area with very low solar radiation is not suitable for installation PV.
However, it is possible to replace coal-red generation gradually
with PV power generation considering cost decreasing and the help
of subsidies and incentives by government. In the near future China,
both the large-scale grid-connected PV system and small distributed PV system are foreseen to large scale of the application.
In fact, more than 90% of the PV products produced in China
were exported to foreign countries, such as the USA and Europe,
which implied that the production stages that consumed energy
and discharged pollutants were located in China, but the use phase,
which was almost completely clean, was located in foreign

Table 5
Environmental impacts of a PV system located in Tibet and Beijing.
Environmental impacts

Jiangsu to Tibet

Acidication potential (kg SO2-e/kWh)

Eutrophication potential (kg PO43-e/kWh)
Global warming potential (kg CO2-e/kWh)
Human toxicity potential (kg DCB-e/kWh)
Ozone layer depletion potential (kg R11-e/kWh)
Photochemical ozone creation potential (kg ethane-e/kWh)

2.69E-04
2.67E-05
3.20E-02
1.10E-02
1.87E-09
1.69E-05

The numbers in brackets are the environmental impacts per kWh of module transportation.

(3.82E-06)a
(6.68E-07)
(6.36E-04)
(2.05E-05)
(1.19E-12)
(3.28E-07)

Jiangsu to Beijing
3.43E-04
3.39E-05
4.07E-02
1.42E-02
2.41E-09
2.16E-05

(1.21E-06)
(2.11E-07)
(2.01E-04)
(6.47E-06)
(3.77E-13)
(1.04E-07)

Y. Fu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 86 (2015) 180e190

countries. That was, the export of PV products was a transfer of

pollution, and the importing country should take responsibility for
the pollution. On the other hand, from the perspective of global
environmental protection, compared to Europe and the USA, it was
more appropriate to install PV systems in China because it had both
large electricity demand and large CO2 and primary energy consumption reduction potentials (Kawajiri and Genchi, 2012).
Therefore, the impact of replacing Chinese power plants with PV
could be much better.
4.2. Location and transportation effect
In the study of the environmental impacts, the location of the
PV systems and transportation effects were not taken into account
in the above analysis. However, they did affect the results. For
convenience of calculation, we simplied the problem, considering
only the installation location of PV systems rst. According to the
regional distribution characteristics of solar radiation, the Chinese
area was divided into ve regions (Kawajiri et al., 2011). The
environmental impacts per kWh electricity generated by PV systems located in these regions differed because their life-cycle
generation capacities vary due to the different solar radiation
they receive. Taking the AP for example, the AP of PV systems
located in rst-class areas was 2.65E-04e3.0E-04 kg SO2-e/kWh,
that of PV systems located in second-class areas was 3.0E04e3.43E-04 kg SO2-e/kWh, and that in fth-class areas was
4.77E-04e7.2E-04 kg SO2-e/kWh. The life-cycle generation capacity of PV systems located in rst-class areas was twice that in
fth-class areas, and the environmental impacts per kWh were
less than half of that in fth-class areas. Thus, for the same PV
system, the installation location in China strongly affected its
environmental impacts. It was appropriate to install PV system in
areas with high solar radiation, such as the Tibet Autonomous
Region, northeastern Qinghai and western borders of Gansu, as
well as southern Inner Mongolia, northern Shanxi and Ningxia,
central and northwest Gansu, eastern Qinghai, southeast Tibet,
and southern Xinjiang. However, research show that current PV
systems in China were mainly located in Beijing and Hebei, where
the cumulative capacity accounted for 73.1% and 8.3% of the total
capacity in China (Chen and Wang, 2012). In addition, the PV
production companies were clustered in the Yangtze Delta area,
Pearl River Delta area, and Bohai Rim, including Guangdong,
Zhejiang, Shanghai, Beijing, and Jiangsu (Chen and Shen, 2012).
Accounting for the transportation of PV modules from the producing area to operating area would change the calculated environmental impacts of PV systems.
To determine how the transportation affected the energy demand and environmental impacts, we discussed the following two
situations: modules transported by container truck from Jiangsu to
the Tibet Autonomous Region and to Beijing. The distance from
Jiangsu to Tibet was approximately 4500 km, and that to Beijing
was approximately 1100 km.
From the previous study, we knew that Tibet was a rst-class
area with an annual solar radiation of 7560 MJ m2 a1, and the
generating capacity of a poly-Si PV system located there was
39.4 kWh throughout its life cycle. Beijing was a third-class area
with an annual solar radiation of 5850 MJ m2 a1, and the
generating capacity of a poly-Si PV system located there was
30.5 kWh through its life cycle.
The total primary energy demand of the transport of PV modules from Jiangsu to Tibet was 0.36 MJ/Wp, which was, 9.14E-3 MJ/
kWh, 2.7% of the primary energy demand of the whole PV system,
and that of PV modules from Jiangsu to Beijing was 0.087 MJ/Wp,
which was, 2.85E-3 MJ/kWh, 0.69% of the whole PV system. Taking
the transportation of modules into account, the AP of the PV system

189

located in Tibet and Beijing was 2.69E-04 kg SO2-e/kWh and 3.44E04 kg SO2-e/kWh, and the AP of transport accounted for 1.33% and
0.33%, respectively. The environmental impacts of the total PV
system and transportation per kWh were shown in Table 5.
Obviously, in terms of all the environmental impacts, the
module transportation from Jiangsu to Tibet was larger than that
from Jiangsu to Beijing because the distance from Jiangsu to Tibet is
much longer. However, even if considering the transportation of
modules, all of the environmental impacts per kWh of PV systems
located in Tibet were less than those in Beijing due to the better
generating capacity of the PVs located in Tibet, which has greater
solar irradiation. In addition, the environmental impacts of PV
located in Beijing were less than those in Jiangsu, which were
fourth-class areas. Therefore, considering the impact of longdistance transportation, the rst-class areas represented by Tibet
were still the most suitable place for the installation of multi-Si PV
systems, with the least environmental impacts.
Furthermore, life cycle environmental burden of highconcentration PV systems was much lower than that of the atplate c-Si systems operating in the same high-insolation regions
(Fthenakis and Kim, 2013). Therefore, itll be more environmentally
friendly to develop the high-concentration photovoltaic systems.
Now the grid in China is ready for large scale PV production, and the
development of intelligent electric grid will promote the grid
connection of PV system. After gird connected operation of PV,
there is capacity for transporting electricity throughout the country
by the grid. But the economic cost of PV is higher than electricity
generated by coal-red power plants now. Thus, Chinese government is committed to grid parity of PV by subsidy and technological
innovation.

5. Conclusions
Briey, the most important results of the analysis were the
calculation of a primary energy demand of 12.61 MJ/Wp, that was,
0.041e0.87 MJ/kWh, and an energy payback time of 2.2e6.1 years
of multi-Si PV systems produced and installed in China areas. Given
that the lifespan of PV system was approximately 25 years, it is
practical and economic to install the PV systems in China.
Concerning the primary energy demand and environmental
impacts, such as AP, EP, GWP, HTP, and POCP, the stage of multi-Si
production contributed the most due to its large consumption of
electricity, which was mainly produced by coal-red power plants
in China (National Energy Administration of China, 2012), leading
to high energy consumption and pollution.
Compared with the other power generation systems, we found
the multi-Si PV systems to be cleaner. If multi-Si PV systems
completely replaced the coal-red power plants of China in 2011,
the primary energy demand would decrease by 3.98E 13 MJ and
the other environmental impacts would be highly mitigated. On the
other hand, from the perspective of the environmental protection
of the whole world, it was better to install PV systems in China than
to export them.
The transportation of PV modules didn't contribute much
(less than 3%) to the total primary energy demand and environmental impacts. In addition, areas with high solar radiation,
such as the Tibet Autonomous Region, northeastern Qinghai, and
western borders of Gansu, were most suitable for installing the
PV systems from the perspective of environmental protection. In
the future, we will discuss the PV systems produced and located
in any other regions in China in depth and study the environmental impacts of improved PV technologies and production
processes.

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Y. Fu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production 86 (2015) 180e190

Acknowledgments
This research was nancially supported by the Natural Science
Foundation of China (41222012), the Public Welfare Project of the
Ministry of Environmental Protection (201009058), the Program for
New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-11-0244), and
the Fundamental Research Funds for Central Universities
(1124021114).
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data related to this article can be found at http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.07.057.
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