Operational Performance and Degradation Influenced Life Cycle Environmental–Economic Metrics of mc-Si, a-Si and HIT Photovoltaic Arrays in Hot Semi-arid Climates

Pramod Rajput, Maria Malvoni, Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar, O. S. Sastry and Arunkumar Jayakumar
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Pramod Rajput: Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, NH-65 Nagaur Road, Karwar, Jodhpur 342037, Rajasthan, India
Maria Malvoni: School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 15780 Athens, Greece
Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar: School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China
O. S. Sastry: National Institute of Solar Energy, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, New Delhi 110003, India
Arunkumar Jayakumar: Department of Automobile Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur 603203, Tamil Nadu, India

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-20

Abstract: Life cycle metrics evolution specific to the climate zone of photovoltaic (PV) operation would give detailed insights on the environmental and economic performance. At present, vast literature is available on the PV life cycle metrics where only the output energies ignoring the degradation rate (DR) influence. In this study, the environ-economic analysis of three PV technologies, namely, multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si), amorphous silicon (a-Si) and hetero-junction with an intrinsic thin layer (HIT) have been carried out in identical environmental conditions. The energy performance parameters and the DR rate of three PV technologies are evaluated based on the monitored real time data from the installation site in hot semi-arid climates. The assessment demonstrates that the HIT PV module technology exhibits more suitable results compared to mc-Si and a-Si PV systems in hot semi-arid climatic conditions of India. Moreover, energy metrices which includes energy payback time (EPBT), energy production factor (EPF) and life cycle conversion efficiency (LCCE) of the HIT technologies are found to be 1.0, 24.93 and 0.15 years, respectively. HIT PV system has higher potential to mitigate the CO 2 and carbon credit earned compared to mc-Si and a-Si PV system under hot semi-arid climate. However, the annualized uniform cost (UAC) for mc-Si (3.60 Rs/kWh) and a-Si (3.40 Rs/kWh) are more admissible in relation to the HIT (6.63 Rs/kWh) PV module type. We conclude that the approach of considering DR influenced life cycle metrics over the traditional approach can support to identify suitable locations for specific PV technology.

Keywords: photovoltaic systems; PV cells; amorphous silicon; HIT; crystalline solar cells; degradation rate; life cycle assessment; life cycle metrics; energy payback time; annualized uniform cost (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 (7)

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