Life Cycle Assessment of Monocrystalline Versus Polycrystalline Imported Photovoltaic Panels in Context of Energy

Solar energy is one of the most promising and sustainable energy suppliers among other energies. Geologically Pakistan is residing in the territory of highest solar radiation fall in the world. The average radiation falls is range from 4.656 4.864 kWh/m/day daily on Pakistan. It shows the high potential solar energy exists in Pakistan, but still Pakistan is unsuccessful to trap solar energy in abundant manner due to many reason. Pakistan is facing energy crisis for many years and still many of the regions are not electrified due to accessibility and other issues. So the local people are using the standalone solar system for fulfilling the basic need but the survey found very bad quality solar panels selling in the market which are imported from china and other countries. However, it discourages indirectly the local people by using such panels by getting the low output. So this research is carried to conduct the life cycle assessment (LCA) of solar module. It is a technique that quantifies the product impact on the environment and identifies other important factors which ensure the quality and market development. In this research the LCA found the processes and operation used in manufacturing the solar module, which contribute larger part in the emission and energy consumption. The transformation of metallurgical grade silicon to solar grade silicon and panels assembly is the two main processes which consumed more than 70% of energy and take part in higher emission. The results showed 1416 MJ/panel and about 79 kg of equivalent CO2/panel generated. So it is proposed that Pakistan should start their manufacturing. Keywords— Energy Payback period (EPBT), Global warming potential (GWP).