Assessing the Alignment of Solar Facilities with Global Climate Goals

Abstract

Climate science-based targets have become the state-of-the-art approach for greenhouse gas goal setting by companies and institutions. As companies try to maximize the climate benefit of their renewable energy investments and lower their Scope 3 emissions, climate science-based target setting can be extended to solar facilities themselves. By evaluating the embodied carbon and economic emissions intensity of a solar facility and globally extrapolating, the solar park's temperature alignment can be calculated with the X-Degree Compatibility Model. A case study of 100 MWdc solar facilities in North Carolina indicates that solar facilities are well aligned with global climate goals for a 1.75°C (i.e. 'well below 2°C’) warming scenario. While the analysis shows that both, CdTe and mono-c-Si PV systems, are compatible with the chosen global warming scenario, the CdTe PV system has a lower climate impact, measurable in °C. The most sensitive variables contributing to economic emissions intensity are PPA price, O&M cost, system lifetime, and embodied carbon. Continued progress in lowering the embodied carbon and increasing the lifetime of PV systems is needed to counteract the tendency for increasing economic emissions intensity from declining PPA prices.