Quantifying Energy Flows in PV Circularity Processes: Preprint

Heather Mirletz; Silvana Ovaitt; Ashley Gaulding; Seetharaman Sridhar; Teresa Barnes

Quantifying Energy Flows in PV Circularity Processes: Preprint

Heather Mirletz, Silvana Ovaitt, Ashley Gaulding, Seetharaman Sridhar, Teresa Barnes

Materials Science

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper

Abstract

As sustainability and end-of-life management become a hot topic to timely address in the PV community, a proper evaluation of the benefits of circular pathways such as recycling, reuse, and remanufacturing has not been performed holistically beyond material flows or LCA analysis. Energy flows are critical for evaluating energy generation technologies. Previously they have been used to compare renewables to fossil generation and then between PV technologies. This paper brings energy flows to bear on reaching circular pathways for PV. The energy flows to track energy usage, generation, and losses complementary to the mass flows are presented for silicon through the leverage of the PV ICE framework.

Original language	American English
Number of pages	6
State	Published - 2022
Event	49th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC 49) - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Duration: 5 Jun 2022 → 10 Jun 2022

Conference

Conference	49th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC 49)
City	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Period	5/06/22 → 10/06/22

Bibliographical note

See NREL/CP-5K00-85059 for paper as published in proceedings

NREL Publication Number

NREL/CP-5K00-81926

Keywords

circular economy
energy flows
energy return on investment (EROI)
material flows
photovoltaics
recycle
repair
reuse

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy22osti/81926.pdf

Cite this

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title = "Quantifying Energy Flows in PV Circularity Processes: Preprint",

abstract = "As sustainability and end-of-life management become a hot topic to timely address in the PV community, a proper evaluation of the benefits of circular pathways such as recycling, reuse, and remanufacturing has not been performed holistically beyond material flows or LCA analysis. Energy flows are critical for evaluating energy generation technologies. Previously they have been used to compare renewables to fossil generation and then between PV technologies. This paper brings energy flows to bear on reaching circular pathways for PV. The energy flows to track energy usage, generation, and losses complementary to the mass flows are presented for silicon through the leverage of the PV ICE framework.",

keywords = "circular economy, energy flows, energy return on investment (EROI), material flows, photovoltaics, recycle, repair, reuse",

author = "Heather Mirletz and Silvana Ovaitt and Ashley Gaulding and Seetharaman Sridhar and Teresa Barnes",

note = "See NREL/CP-5K00-85059 for paper as published in proceedings; 49th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC 49) ; Conference date: 05-06-2022 Through 10-06-2022",

year = "2022",

language = "American English",

}

TY - CONF

T1 - Quantifying Energy Flows in PV Circularity Processes: Preprint

AU - Mirletz, Heather

AU - Ovaitt, Silvana

AU - Gaulding, Ashley

AU - Sridhar, Seetharaman

AU - Barnes, Teresa

N1 - See NREL/CP-5K00-85059 for paper as published in proceedings

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - As sustainability and end-of-life management become a hot topic to timely address in the PV community, a proper evaluation of the benefits of circular pathways such as recycling, reuse, and remanufacturing has not been performed holistically beyond material flows or LCA analysis. Energy flows are critical for evaluating energy generation technologies. Previously they have been used to compare renewables to fossil generation and then between PV technologies. This paper brings energy flows to bear on reaching circular pathways for PV. The energy flows to track energy usage, generation, and losses complementary to the mass flows are presented for silicon through the leverage of the PV ICE framework.

AB - As sustainability and end-of-life management become a hot topic to timely address in the PV community, a proper evaluation of the benefits of circular pathways such as recycling, reuse, and remanufacturing has not been performed holistically beyond material flows or LCA analysis. Energy flows are critical for evaluating energy generation technologies. Previously they have been used to compare renewables to fossil generation and then between PV technologies. This paper brings energy flows to bear on reaching circular pathways for PV. The energy flows to track energy usage, generation, and losses complementary to the mass flows are presented for silicon through the leverage of the PV ICE framework.

KW - circular economy

KW - energy flows

KW - energy return on investment (EROI)

KW - material flows

KW - photovoltaics

KW - recycle

KW - repair

KW - reuse

M3 - Paper

T2 - 49th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC 49)

Y2 - 5 June 2022 through 10 June 2022

ER -

Quantifying Energy Flows in PV Circularity Processes: Preprint

Abstract

Conference

Bibliographical note

NREL Publication Number

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this