SP6 Sustainability

SP6 is dedicated to the optimization of crystalline silicon photovoltaics as a sustainable energy technology. Although photovoltaics is based on the use of sunlight and therefore a fully renewable energy technology, its environmental quality (sustainability) is a.o. dependent on the energy consumption during manufacturing and on the materials used.

These latter are closely related to the topics covered in SP1 to SP5, which emphasises the importance of SP6 in the whole of CRYSTALCLEAR . The activities cover two main aspects:

1. further development of module recycling technology, which also allows for recovery and reuse of silicon wafers;
2. analysis of the environmental impacts of module manufacturing by means of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method.

The objectives are to achieve a 20% reduction per unit area of the environmental impacts of PV modules, and to decrease the energy pay-back time of photovoltaic systems from 3-5 years (status of technology in the period 1997-2000) to roughly 1-2 years. Note that the range refers primarily to different locations and the corresponding insolation (North-West and Central Europe versus Southern Europe).

The research and development on recycling technology will mainly be done in a pilot recycling facility at one of the industry partners, which is already in operation. Other partners will offer new and existing module types for testing in the recycling process. The LCA parameters obtained will be used as one of the drivers in the selection of optimal CRYSTALCLEAR technology options (from feedstock to completed module).