Should Photovoltaics Stay at Home? Comparative Life Cycle Environmental Assessment on Roof-Mounted and Ground-Mounted Photovoltaics

Victor Kouloumpis, Antonios Kalogerakis, Anastasia Pavlidou, George Tsinarakis and George Arampatzis
Additional contact information
Victor Kouloumpis: Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn TR10 9FE, UK
Antonios Kalogerakis: Department of Science Natural Resources and Outdoor Studies, University of Cumbria, Cumbria LA22 9BB, UK
Anastasia Pavlidou: Department of Financial & Management Engineering, School of Business Studies, University of the Aegean, 82100 Chios, Greece
George Tsinarakis: Department of Financial & Management Engineering, School of Business Studies, University of the Aegean, 82100 Chios, Greece
George Arampatzis: School of Production Engineering and Management, Technical University of Crete, University Campus, Akrotiri, 73100 Chania, Greece

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 21, 1-15

Abstract: Renewable energy technologies like photovoltaics may be considered an indispensable component of a low-carbon electricity mix, but social acceptance should not be taken for granted. For instance, in Greece there are still claims, especially in rural areas, regarding the land use and the competition against more traditional economic activities such as grazing. An argument in favor of confining to roof-mounted photovoltaic installations is the additional infrastructure requirements for ground-mounted larger-scale photovoltaics. These requirements reduce and could potentially negate their environmental benefits. The aim of this study is to investigate the life cycle environmental impacts of commercial ground-mounted photovoltaic farms and compare them against residential roof-mounted photovoltaic installations. Data were gathered for a 500 kW ground-mounted photovoltaic installation and for five roof-mounted installations of 10 kW capacity, each from the same area at the prefecture of Pella in Northern Greece. An LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) was performed and results show that panel production is the main contributor for both types and that ground-mounted photovoltaics—when no transmission/distribution infrastructure is considered—have lower impacts than the roof-mounted residential photovoltaic installations for all impact categories except terrestrial ecotoxicity. However, when located further than 10.22 km from grid connection, ground-mounted photovoltaics have higher impacts for almost all environmental impact categories.

Keywords: photovoltaic farm; residential photovoltaic; life cycle assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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