A comparison of CO2 emissions from fossil and solar power plants in the United States

Re-assessment of net energy production and greenhouse gas emissions avoidance after 40 years of photovoltaics development

“…19) and 409 gCO 2 -eq kWh −1 for mono-Si in 1986 (ref. 20). For determining the EPBT and the GHG footprint per kWh of produced electricity, the energy yield of the systems, and thus insolation and consequently location, are of great importance.…”

A Comparative Analysis of Energy Costs of Photovoltaic, Solar Thermal, and Wind Electricity Generation Technologies

“…[12] 1997 PV Japan Process [13] 1997 PV US Process [14] 2000 PV Unspecified Process [15] 2001 PV Europe Process [16] 2001 PV US Process [17] 2002 PV India Process [18] 2002 PV Europe Process [19] 2004 PV Europe Process [20] 2004 PV India Process [21] 2004 PV Europe Process [22] 2005 PV Europe Process [23] 2006 PV US Process [24] 2006 PV Europe Process [25] 2006 PV US Process [26] 2006 PV Singapore Process [27] 2007 PV Europe Process [28] 2007 PV US Process [29] 2007 PV Europe Process [30] 2008 PV China Process [31] 2008 PV Many Process [32] 2009 PV Europe Process [33] 2009 PV US Process [34] 2009 PV Europe Process [6] 2010 PV US/Canada Process [35] 2010 PV US Hybrid [36] 2010 PV China/Japan Process [37] 2011 PV Europe Process [38] 2011 PV Europe Process [39] 1990 CSP US I-O [40] 1999 CSP Australia Hybrid [41] 2002 CSP Australia Hybrid [42] 2008 CSP Europe Process [43] 2011 CSP US Hybrid [44] 2011 CSP Europe Process [45] 2011 CSP Chile Process [46] 2011 CSP China Process …”

“…Such inputs were mainly associated with CSP, where natural gas must sometimes be burned to maintain steam operating temperatures or to restart the steam turbine after an overnight shut-down. Data taken from [39,[41][42][43]45,46].…”

Review of the Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Different Photovoltaic and Concentrating Solar Power Electricity Generation Systems

“…Many studies [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46] evaluated the life cycle environmental impacts of using CSP electricity generation systems. The majority of the CSP studies [35,37,[39][40][41][42][44][45][46] defined the LCA boundary conditions to include activities, such as manufacturing (extraction of raw materials, transportation to the manufacturing facility, component manufacturing processes, transportation of the final product to regional storage), construction (activities associated with site improvements, transporting components to the site, plant assembly), operation, and maintenance (manufacture of replacement components and their transportation to the site, water consumption in the power block and for mirror cleaning, fuel consumption in cleaning/maintenance vehicles, on-site natural gas combustion, electricity consumption from the regional power grid), dismantling (energy required to disassemble the major CSP plant systems), and disposal (energy required to transport demolition waste to the landfill, incinerator, recycling plant, or re-manufacturer and the energy required for final disposal).…”

“…Many studies analyzed the LCA of PVs and CSPs [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46]. The use of PV/CSP electricity generation systems around the world is being encouraged in view of the advantages that solar energy is a free and abundant resource from which electricity may be generated with relatively low operational and maintenance costs in comparison with other renewable energy sources.…”