Ecotoxicological assessment of solar cell leachates: Copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) cells show higher activity than organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells

Brun, Nadja R.; Wehrli, Bernhard; Fent, Karl

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.11.074

Cited by 26 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…The thin-film and amorphous silicon technologies still give lower efficiency than the silicon. However, they provide outstanding benefits for higher efficiency in different climatic conditions and lower production costs [30].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance and Economic Evaluation of Solar Rooftop Systems in Different Regions of Thailand

2019

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Solar rooftop systems in the residential sector have been rapidly increased in the term of installed capacity. There are various factors, such as climate, temperature, and solar radiation, that have effects on solar power generation efficiency. This paper presents a performance assessment of a solar system installed on the rooftop of residence in different regions of Thailand by using PSIM simulation. Solar rooftop installation comparison in different regions is carried out to evaluate the suitable location. In addition, three types of solar panels are used in research: monocrystalline, polycrystalline, and thin-film. The electrical parameters of real power and energy generated from the systems are investigated and analyzed. Furthermore, the economic evaluation of different solar rooftop system sizes using the monocrystalline module is investigated by using economic indicators of discounted payback period (DPP), net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and profitability index (PI). Results show that the central region of Thailand is a suitable place for installing solar rooftop in terms of solar radiation, and the temperature has more solar power generation capacity than the other regions. The monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar panels can generate maximum power close to each other. All solar rooftop sizes with the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme give the same DPP of 6.1 years, IRR of 15%, and PI of 2.57 which are better than the cases without the FiT scheme. However, a large-scale installation of solar rooftop systems can receive more electrical energy produced from the solar rooftop systems. As a result, the larger solar rooftop system sizes can achieve better economic satisfaction.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance and Economic Evaluation of Solar Rooftop Systems in Different Regions of Thailand

2019

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“…Ecotoxicology data related to SC components is still lacking, [49][50][51][52] in particular for the third generation, since this technology is not on the market yet, and the main effort is spent in improving their efficiency leaving aside the ecotoxicological studies. [48]…”

Section: Toxicity Of Materials In Third-generation Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Third‐Generation Solar Cells: Toxicity and Risk of Exposure

Buitrago

Novello

Meyer

2020

Helvetica Chimica Acta

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Solar energy is considered clean energy, and its use is predicted to increase in the near future. Most installed units today are crystalline solar cells, but the field is in constant development, and when the first dye sensitized solar cell was published by Grätzel and O'Reagan a new, third‐generation, solar power was born. Highly toxic metals are used to produce the photovoltaic units today, and with the predicted increase in solar cell installation, the human health hazards of these panels could become an issue. Additionally, many of these materials are used in their nanoform, which is associated with an additional risk. In this article, we discuss the technology behind the third‐generation solar cells with its valuable use of nanotechnology as well as the possible health hazard when such nanomaterials are used in solar power units. We will show that the main exposure will occur either during the development and production phases or at the end‐of‐life stage of the solar cells, where toxic material can leach into landfills, and subsequently into the environment and impact the ecosystem directly, or humans indirectly through edible plants or drinking water.

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“…However, the recovery of critical metalloids from waste solar panels seems rather problematic [86]. New photovoltaic materials, such as CIGS, are considered toxic [87,88] and are related especially to pulmonary and reproductive toxicity [89,90]. The recovery of tellurium [86,[91][92][93]-as well as of lanthanum from nickel metal hybrid batteries [94][95][96] and lithium-ion batteries [97]-seems practically feasible.…”

Section: Crm Recovery: the Smart City As An Anthropogenic Scrap Metalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Smart Is Not Smart Enough!” Anticipating Critical Raw Material Use in Smart City Concepts: The Example of Smart Grids

David

Koch

2019

Sustainability

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Globally emerging smart city concepts aim to make resource production and allocation in urban areas more efficient, and thus more sustainable through new sociotechnical innovations such as smart grids, smart meters, or solar panels. While recent critiques of smart cities have focused on data security, surveillance, or the influence of corporations on urban development, especially with regard to intelligent communication technologies (ICT), issues related to the material basis of smart city technologies and the interlinked resource problems have largely been ignored in the scholarly literature and in urban planning. Such problems pertain to the provision and recovery of critical raw materials (CRM) from anthropogenic sources like scrap metal repositories, which have been intensely studied during the last few years. To address this gap in the urban planning literature, we link urban planning literatures on smart cities with literatures on CRM mining and recovery from scrap metals. We find that underestimating problems related to resource provision and recovery might lead to management and governance challenges in emerging smart cities, which also entail ethical issues. To illustrate these problems, we refer to the smart city energy domain and explore the smart city-CRM-energy nexus from the perspectives of the respective literatures. We show that CRMs are an important foundation for smart city energy applications such as energy production, energy distribution, and energy allocation. Given current trends in smart city emergence, smart city concepts may potentially foster primary extraction of CRMs, which is linked to considerable environmental and health issues. While the problems associated with primary mining have been well-explored in the literature, we also seek to shed light on the potential substitution and recovery of CRMs from anthropogenic raw material deposits as represented by installed digital smart city infrastructures. Our central finding is that the current smart city literature and contemporary urban planning do not address these issues. This leads to the paradox that smart city concepts are supporting the CRM dependencies that they should actually be seeking to overcome. Discussion on this emerging issue between academics and practitioners has nevertheless not taken place. We address these issues and make recommendations.

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Ecotoxicological assessment of solar cell leachates: Copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) cells show higher activity than organic photovoltaic (OPV) cells

Cited by 26 publications

References 65 publications

Performance and Economic Evaluation of Solar Rooftop Systems in Different Regions of Thailand

Performance and Economic Evaluation of Solar Rooftop Systems in Different Regions of Thailand

Third‐Generation Solar Cells: Toxicity and Risk of Exposure

“Smart Is Not Smart Enough!” Anticipating Critical Raw Material Use in Smart City Concepts: The Example of Smart Grids

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