Should Photovoltaics Stay at Home? Comparative Life Cycle Environmental Assessment on Roof-Mounted and Ground-Mounted Photovoltaics
| Autor: | George Arampatzis, George Tsinarakis, Antonios Kalogerakis, Victor Kouloumpis, Anastasia Pavlidou |
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| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Photovoltaic farm
020209 energy Geography Planning and Development TJ807-830 02 engineering and technology 010501 environmental sciences Management Monitoring Policy and Law TD194-195 01 natural sciences Renewable energy sources life cycle assessment Photovoltaics 0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineering Grid connection Z444 Residential photovoltaic GE1-350 Environmental impact assessment Environmental planning Life-cycle assessment 0105 earth and related environmental sciences Environmental effects of industries and plants Land use photovoltaic farm Renewable Energy Sustainability and the Environment business.industry Photovoltaic system Z73 residential photovoltaic Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Renewable energy Environmental sciences Environmental science Electricity business |
| Zdroj: | Sustainability, Vol 12, Iss 9120, p 9120 (2020) Sustainability Volume 12 Issue 21 |
| ISSN: | 2071-1050 |
| DOI: | 10.3390/su12219120 |
| Popis: | Renewable energy technologies like photovoltaics may be considered an indispensable component of a low-carbon electricity mix, but social acceptance should not be taken for granted. For instance, in Greece there are still claims, especially in rural areas, regarding the land use and the competition against more traditional economic activities such as grazing. An argument in favor of confining to roof-mounted photovoltaic installations is the additional infrastructure requirements for ground-mounted larger-scale photovoltaics. These requirements reduce and could potentially negate their environmental benefits. The aim of this study is to investigate the life cycle environmental impacts of commercial ground-mounted photovoltaic farms and compare them against residential roof-mounted photovoltaic installations. Data were gathered for a 500 kW ground-mounted photovoltaic installation and for five roof-mounted installations of 10 kW capacity, each from the same area at the prefecture of Pella in Northern Greece. An LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) was performed and results show that panel production is the main contributor for both types and that ground-mounted photovoltaics&mdash when no transmission/distribution infrastructure is considered&mdash have lower impacts than the roof-mounted residential photovoltaic installations for all impact categories except terrestrial ecotoxicity. However, when located further than 10.22 km from grid connection, ground-mounted photovoltaics have higher impacts for almost all environmental impact categories. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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