Life cycle assessment on monocrystalline silicon (mono-Si) solar photovoltaic (PV) cell production in China is performed in the present study, aiming to evaluate the environmental burden, identify key factors. Solar photovoltaic (PV) is one of the fastest growing renewable energy technology worldwide b. 2.1. LCA approach2.2. PBTE and environmental impact payback time (PBTI)PBTE is a time period defined for a PV system to generate the same amount of energy that will c. 3.1. LCIA midpoint resultsTable 3 exhibits the LCIA midpoint scores of various LCA methods. For the climate change category, the LCIA midpoint result obtained from Re. This study addresses the environmental burden and key factors contributing to the burden of mono-Si PV cell production in China. Results show that the impact from the human toxicit. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Institute of Plateau Meteorology, CMA, Chengdu, China (LPM2014002), China Energy Conservation and Emission Re.
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By the end of 2022, China's cumulative installed PV capacity had reached 392.6 GW, with an additional installation of 87.41 GW in 2022 (National Energy Administration, 2023), ranking the first globally in terms of new installation rate. It has become the world's largest PV power market, accounting for nearly one-third of global PV installations 9.
The increased installed capacity, the heavy manufacturing, and the availability of materials on its domestic land allowed China to control the global solar market by imposing quotas and restrictions on importing countries. We have shown that China alone installed more than 50 % of the total Asian solar capacity in the span of 25 years.
Regarding the installation, China is striving to lead that as well. The Renewable Energy Agency's updated report shows that solar PV installation increased from 72 GW in 2011 to more than 1 TW by the end of 2022 (IRENA, 2022b). China's share in production increased from 60 % in 2010 to almost 80 % in 2021.
All these factors allow China to provide cost-competitive manufacturing for all solar PV elements, especially since the material cost is unified. That being said, PV manufacturing is 9 % higher in India, and about 20–35 % more expensive in the United States, Europe, and Korea (IEA, 2022a).
As discussed in the previous sections, China was able to dominate the solar industry market. Incentives and government subsidies dating from 2009 onwards helped secure the lead in the world for solar power production since 2017 (Liu et al., 2022; Chowdhury et al., 2020).
China alone produces at least 80 % of the main components of PVs. Also, more than 30 % of the cumulative installed capacity is in China, the top exporter of manufactured solar PVs in the World with competitive manufacturing costs that reached less than $0.24/W.