Energy payback time (EPBT) and energy return on energy invested (EROI) of solar photovoltaic systems: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Bhandari, Khagendra P.; Collier, Jennifer; Ellingson, Randy J.; Apul, Defne

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2015.02.057

Cited by 370 publications

(168 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…The two net-energy metrics commonly applied to electricity generation technologies are the energy return on investment (EROI) and energy payback time (EPBT). EROI for electricity generation has been widely studied, especially coal-fired electricity, including carbon capture (Wu et al 2016;White and Kulcinski 2000), wind power (Kubiszewski et al 2010), solar photovoltaics (Bhandari et al 2015;Koppelaar 2016;Louwen et al 2016) and gas-fired generation (Moeller and Murphy 2016). The boundaries and types of analysis vary between studies, but all those just cited adopt the electricity busbar or inverter output as the EROI numerator-electricity distribution and management of the grid system as a whole is typically excluded from the analysis boundary.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many of the differences in findings between conventional analyses can be accounted for via meta-analyses that harmonise for key performance parameters (e.g. Bhandari et al 2015;Koppelaar 2016;Louwen et al 2016).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Bhandari et al (2015) collected 232 references for PV studies published between 2000 and 2013, the vast majority of which adopted conventional LCA-based boundaries. This biases meta-analyses towards conventional boundaries.…”

Section: Benefits Of Standard Boundaries and Methodsologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Process analyses for thin-film technologies calculate an EPBT of around half that of crystalline Si (Ito et al 2016;Fthenakis and Kim 2011). Findings from a meta-study by Bhandari et al (2015, Fig. 7) indicate mean harmonised PV module plus BOS EROI (factory-gate boundary) for multi-Si approximately 33% higher than for mono-Si.…”

Section: Pv Cell Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is also widely adopted in the PV EROI literature. Of the three meta-analyses considered in this study, all apply a 'substitution method' equivalence adjustment to either the investments or output, with primary energy to electricity conversion factors of 0.311 (Louwen et al 2016) and 0.35 (Bhandari et al 2015;Koppelaar 2016). A related study adopts 0.30 .…”

Section: Output Energy Form Equivalence In the Context Of Pv Neamentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Exploration of Divergence in EPBT and EROI for Solar Photovoltaics

Palmer

Floyd²

2017

Biophys Econ Resour Qual

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Solar photovoltaics (PV) is widely regarded as one of the most promising renewable energy technologies. Net energy analysis (NEA) is a tool to evaluate the energetic performance of all energy supply technologies, including solar PV. Results across studies can appear to diverge sharply, which leads to contestation of NEA's relevance to energy transition feasibility assessment and contributes to ongoing uncertainty in relation to the critical issue of the sustainability of PV. This study explores how PV NEA approaches differ, including in relation to goal definitions, methodologies and boundaries of analysis. It focuses on two principal NEA metrics, energy return on investment (EROI) and energy payback time (EPBT). Here we show that most of the apparent divergence between studies is accounted for by six factors-life-cycle assessment methodology, age of the primary data, PV cell technology, the treatment of intermittency, equivalence of investment and output energy forms, and assumptions about real-world performance. The apparent divergence in findings between studies can often be traced back to different goal definitions. This study reviews the differing approaches and makes the case that NEA is important for assessing the role of PV in future energy systems, but that findings in the form of EROI or EPBT must be considered with specific reference to the details of the particular study context, and the research questions that it seeks to address. NEA findings in a particular context cannot definitively support general statements about EROI or EPBT of PV electricity in all contexts.

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