Sustainable Solar Electricity

(Green Energy and Technology)

This  book provides a detailed life cycle assessment of photovoltaic  technologies in order to analyse the environmental and socioeconomic  impacts that a large deployment of solar photovoltaic systems will  produce in the near future.

Including both commercial and  emerging technologies, the book presents the energy and materials  requirements to manufacture solar electricity power systems at the order  of the TeraWatt scale deployment as is envisaged by the International  Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) for the near future. It discusses  current manufacturing practices and how these may be adapted in the  future including:

reuse and recycling of components and materials;
raw material supply chains to the manufacturing factories; and
end-of-life procedures including recycling and landfilling of modules.
The  environmental and socioeconomic impacts of solar energy are analysed in  detail, providing recommendations for standardization and regulations  in order to make photovoltaic technologies, both current and emerging, a  really sustainable alternative for the supply of “greener” electricity .