Modeling life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from photovoltaic and wind power generation, with and without energy storage

Several approximate findings are made on the carbon intensity of PV power. (1) Reversible temperature effects raise the carbon intensity of silicon PV power installed in warm regions, including by -10% in the southwestern US and ~13% in western India. (2) All temperature effects raise silicon PV carbon intensity by ~23% in southern India (from 35 to 43 gc/kWh). (3) Chinese manufacturing of multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) modules emits ~25% more GHGs than European manufacturing, due not only to higher carbon intensity of upstream electricity, as previously reported, but also to more energy input per module produced. (4) Relative to stationary mounting, tracking decreases the carbon intensity of mc-Si PV in most regions analyzed (by 0 to ~12%, or 0 to ~4 gc/kWh), and increases the carbon intensity of cadmium telluride PV in most regions analyzed (by 0 to ~12%, or 0 to ~4 gc/kWh).

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Miller, Ian(Ian Graham)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Robert Armstrong.

• Chemical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123729

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/123729