The DOI matches its Crossref record; 13 of the 13 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Emissions from Photovoltaic Life Cycles
Open accessAbstract
Photovoltaic (PV) technologies have shown remarkable progress recently in terms of annual production capacity and life cycle environmental performances, which necessitate timely updates of environmental indicators. Based on PV production data of 2004-2006, this study presents the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, criteria pollutant emissions, and heavy metal emissions from four types of major commercial PV systems: multicrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon, ribbon silicon, and thin-film cadmium telluride. Life-cycle emissions were determined by employing average electricity mixtures in Europe and the United States during the materials and module production for each PV system. Among the current vintage of PV technologies, thin-film cadmium telluride (CdTe) PV emits the least amount of harmful air emissions as it requires the least amount of energy during the module production. However, the differences in the emissions between different PV technologies are very small in comparison to the emissions from conventional energy technologies that PV could displace. As a part of prospective analysis, the effect of PV breeder was investigated. Overall, all PV technologies generate far less life-cycle air emissions per GWh than conventional fossil-fuel-based electricity generation technologies. At least 89% of air emissions associated with electricity generation could be prevented if electricity from photovoltaics displaces electricity from the grid.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Evaluating the limits of solar photovoltaics (PV) in traditional electric power systems
Denholm, P. L., & Margolis, R. (2006) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2006.10.014 · Cited by 428
Fthenakis, V., & Alsema, E. (2006) · Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications · doi:10.1002/pip.706 · Cited by 304
Self-citationEnergy pay-back time and CO2 emissions of PV systems
Alsema, E. A. (2000) · Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications · doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-159x(200001/02)8:1<17::aid-pip295>3.0.co;2-c · Cited by 292
Self-citationLife cycle impact analysis of cadmium in CdTe PV production
Fthenakis, V. M. (2004) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2003.12.001 · Cited by 279
Self-citationParameters affecting the life cycle performance of PV technologies and systems
Pacca, S., Sivaraman, D., & Keoleian, G. A. (2007) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2006.10.003 · Cited by 258
Zweibel, K., Mason, J. P., & Fthenakis, V. M. (2008) · Scientific American · doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0108-64 · Cited by 184
Self-citationEnvironmental Impact of Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Module Production
Alsema, E., & de Wild, M. J. (2005) · MRS Proceedings · doi:10.1557/proc-0895-g03-05 · Cited by 165
Self-citationEnergy payback and life‐cycle CO2 emissions of the BOS in an optimized 3·5 MW PV installation
Mason, J. E., Fthenakis, V. M., Hansen, T., & Kim, H. C. (2006) · Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications · doi:10.1002/pip.652 · Cited by 164
Self-citationEmissions and encapsulation of cadmium in CdTe PV modules during fires
Fthenakis, V. M., Fuhrmann, M., Heiser, J., Lanzirotti, A., Fitts, J. P., & Wang, W. (2005) · Progress in Photovoltaics Research and Applications · doi:10.1002/pip.624 · Cited by 97
Self-citationMeijer, A., Huijbregts, M. A. J., Schermer, J. J., et al. (2003) · Progress in Photovoltaics Research and Applications · doi:10.1002/pip.489 · Cited by 86
ENERGY PAY-BACK TIME OF PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULES
Palz, W., & Zibetta, H. (1991) · International Journal of Sustainable Energy · doi:10.1080/01425919108941464 · Cited by 59
Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Life Cycle of CdTe Photovoltaics
Fthenakis, V. M., & Kim, H. C. (2005) · MRS Proceedings · doi:10.1557/proc-0895-g03-06 · Cited by 54
Self-citationLee, J. C., Fthenakis, V. M., Morris, S. C., Goldstein, G. A., & Moskowitz, P. D. (1997) · Progress in Photovoltaics Research and Applications · doi:10.1002/(sici)1099-159x(199707/08)5:4<287::aid-pip169>3.0.co;2-s · Cited by 1
Self-citation
Cited by
An overview of solar photovoltaic panels’ end-of-life material recycling
Chowdhury, M. S., Rahman, K. S., Chowdhury, T., Nuthammachot, N., Techato, K., Akhtaruzzaman, M., Tiong, S. K., Sopian, K., & Amin, N. (2020) · Energy Strategy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.esr.2019.100431 · Cited by 785
Peng, J., Lu, L., & Yang, H. (2013) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2012.11.035 · Cited by 772
Hertwich, E. G., Gibon, T., Bouman, E. A., Arvesen, A., Suh, S., Heath, G. A., Bergesen, J. D., Ramirez, A., Vega, M. I., & Shi, L. (2015) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1312753111 · Cited by 759
Tawalbeh, M., Al-Othman, A., Kafiah, F., Abdelsalam, E., Almomani, F., & Alkasrawi, M. (2021) · Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143528 · Cited by 659
Photovoltaics: Life-cycle analyses
Fthenakis, V. M., & Kim, H. C. (2011) · Solar Energy · doi:10.1016/j.solener.2009.10.002 · Cited by 441
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Fthenakis, V. M., Kim, H. C., & Alsema, E.
- Venue
- Environmental Science & Technology
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2008-02-06
- Volume
- 42
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 2168-2174
- ISSN
- 0013-936X (ISSN-L)
- 1520-5851
- OpenAlex
- W2103348307
- Cited by
- 608
- References
- 13
- FWCI
- 34.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
