Life Cycle Assessment Study on Luminescent Solar Concentrators

Abstract

In order to make a transition towards a larger share of renewables in the global electricity generation, several renewable sources can be utilized. One of these sources is the sun. Photovoltaic panels already are capable of converting this source to electricity with efficiencies of 15 to 20% in an economically viable way. However, some downsides can be attributed to these conventional panels and that is the reason why research has also focussed on other types of photovoltaic cells. One of these are luminescent solar concentrators. This is not a completely new technology, but recently interest has sparked again due to the lowering in prices of PV panels and the increase in price of fossil fuels. In this thesis a Life Cycle Assessment study on building integrated luminescent solar concentrators has been performed. First, a literature study has been conducted to see what the current state of the technology of the luminescent solar panels is. Second, an inventory of materials required to produce luminescent solar concentrator modules is provided. Then, the modules had their impact assessed by the use of the Ecoinvent database. From this, both the CO2-eq/kWh as the CED and EPBT are derived. These results are then used to compare luminescent solar concentrators with conventional PV and other building materials. In this study it is found that the best modules that are available can have an EPBT as low as 5 years, but the CO2-eq/kWh is high compared to conventional PV. Furthermore, some considerations for installing these modules and future research topics are suggested.