1 research outputs found
Environmental Impacts from Photovoltaic Solar Cells Made with Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes
An ex-ante life cycle inventory was
developed for single walled
carbon nanotube (SWCNT) PV cells, including a laboratory-made 1% efficient
device and an aspirational 28% efficient four-cell tandem device.
The environmental impact of unit energy generation from the mono-Si
PV technology was used as a reference point. Compared to monocrystalline
Si (mono-Si), the environmental impacts from 1% SWCNT was ∼18
times higher due mainly to the short lifetime of three years. However,
even with the same short lifetime, the 28% cell had lower environmental
impacts than mono-Si. The effects of lifetime and efficiency on the
environmental impacts were further examined. This analysis showed
that if the SWCNT device efficiency had the same value as the best
efficiency of the material under comparison, to match the total normalized
impacts of the mono- and poly-Si, CIGS, CdTe, and a-Si devices, the
SWCNT devices would need a lifetime of 2.8, 3.5, 5.3, 5.1, and 10.8
years, respectively. It was also found that if the SWCNT PV has an
efficiency of 4.5% or higher, its energy payback time would be lower
than other existing and emerging PV technologies. The major impacts
of SWCNT PV came from the cell’s materials synthesis