Abstract
Until now we focused our study on the economic profitability of a PV system and it turned out that the investment was worth it for the finances of its owner. The next question is to know if this investment is also profitable for the Earth. As PV is most of the time considered as a green energy, we are tempted to answer a great yes to that question without thinking more. However, the reality is not so easy. It is true that once installed PV modules produce electricity without carbon emission, but their fabrication is a process quite complex that requires a significant quantity of energy and emits several GHG (Green House Gases). The objective of this chapter is therefore to quantify these emissions and to compare them to the emissions corresponding to the production of the national grid electricity. By doing so, we will be able to determine the energy payback time and the carbon footprint of our PV model.
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Notes
- 1.
Réseau de Transport d’Electricité.
- 2.
Red Eléctrica de España.
- 3.
Average emissions rate based on data from Stopatto (2006) [3] for the following countries Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom.
- 4.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
- 5.
Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques.
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Arcos-Vargas, Á., Riviere, L. (2019). Carbon Footprint of Photovoltaic Energy. In: Grid Parity and Carbon Footprint. SpringerBriefs in Energy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06064-0_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06064-0_6
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