Análise do ciclo de vida de módulos fotovoltaicos

Abstract

Given the current energy scenario in the country, finding alternative ways of producing electricity has become urgent. The use of photovoltaic energy is one of the most promising options, and its main component of the system is the photovoltaic module; because of thus, the study of its life cycle was chosen as the theme of this work. A brief bibliographical review was carried out, in addition to a theoretical analysis of the life cycle of the main components of the photovoltaic system and an in-depth study of monocrystalline silicon modules using a computational tool. The software used was OpenLCA, with the criteria of Causal allocation method, CML 2001 impact assessment method (superseded), type of analytical calculation and Ecoinvent database. The impact categories analyzed were: generic potential acidification; climate change in 20 years; generic potential eutrophication; freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity in 20 years; human toxicity in 20 years; ionizing radiation; marine aquatic ecotoxicity in 20 years; ozone layer depletion in 20 years; terrestrial ecotoxicity in 20 years. It was observed that the largest contribution in seven of the nine categories analyzed came from silicon, with silver being the second largest contributor to impacts.