Environmental Impact of PV Power Systems

Mladen Bošnjaković (), Robert Santa, Zoran Crnac and Tomislav Bošnjaković
Additional contact information
Mladen Bošnjaković: Technical Department, University of Slavonski Brod, Trg Ivane Brlić Mažuranić 2, 35000 Slavonski Brod, Croatia
Robert Santa: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Material Sciences, Institute of Engineering Sciences, The University of Dunaújváros, Tancsics Mihaly 1/A, 2400 Dunaujvaros, Hungary
Zoran Crnac: Technical School, E. Kumičića 55, 35000 Slavonski Brod, Croatia
Tomislav Bošnjaković: Inženjering Gradnja, d.o.o., Ulica 108, brigade ZNG 40, 35000 Slavonski Brod, Croatia

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 15, 1-26

Abstract: In response to the problem of increasing climate change and energy security, investment in renewable energy sources has increased significantly both in Europe and globally. Wind and solar power plants are expected to be the largest contributors to global decarbonization, ranking first and second in projected capacity by 2050. As all power plants have a certain impact on the environment, so do PV power plants, and due to their planned large capacities, it is necessary to assess their impact on the environment. Improving the manufacturing technology of PV system components, increasing the efficiency of solar cells, and using materials that are less harmful to the environment will reduce these impacts. Manufacturing PV system components is a highly energy-intensive process that involves greenhouse gas emissions. As new renewable energy capacity is built, the amount of “green” electricity on the grid increases, reducing CO 2 emissions per kWh consumed. The objective of this paper is to analyze the current status of the environmental impact of PV power plants under these changing conditions in terms of CO 2 emissions, land use, pollutant and noise emissions, and water consumption. The capacity installed to date will reach the end of its lifetime by 2050, which means that the amount of waste associated with it will increase over time. This can have a significant impact on the environment, which is why part of the work is dedicated to this problem. In addition to the available information from the literature, the authors also made their own estimates of land use based on data on newly installed PV power plants and PV modules available on the market. The results of the analysis show that there is enough land both in Europe and worldwide to install the planned capacities of rooftop and ground-mounted PV power plants. CO 2 emissions are at the same level as for concentrated solar power, with a decreasing trend. Pollutant emissions, noise, and water consumption are not major problems compared to other types of power plants. Overall, it can be concluded that the expansion of PV capacity has a very positive impact on the environment.

Keywords: PV power systems; environmental impact; land use; CO 2 emission (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/15/11888/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/15/11888/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:15:p:11888-:d:1209016

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().