This paper proposes a comprehensive sustainability assessment model incorporating (a) life cycle approach and sustainability theory. In the model, sustainability is assessed from three categories: techno-economic, environmental and social. A total of thirteen indicators were included in the proposed model, with five evaluating the techno-economic performance, six evaluating the environmental performance, and two examining the social impact. The effectiveness of this model is then demonstrated through its application to a case study of solar photovoltaic in the North East region of England. Three types of the most commonly deployed solar photovoltaic electricity generation systems are included in the case study: monocrystalline (s-Si), polycrystalline (p-Si) and Cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin film.

The multi-silicon solar photovoltaic system is found to be the most sustainable option for its high performance in the techno-economic and environmental categories; the CdTe based system is the least-favoured option across all three categories; and the polycrystalline system has the best performance across all categories. Energy conversion efficiency appears to be one of the most influential factors for the solar photovoltaic system’s sustainability performance. Despite being the least costly system among the three, the CdTe system appears to be the least financially viable option mainly due to its low energy-conversion efficiency.

This study estimates the environmental impact of selected technologies using the CML2001 method and then employs ReCiPe method to cross-validate the estimated results. Identical results were found for all indicators apart from eutrophication potential, due to the difference in impact quantification methods between CML and ReCiPe.

本文提出了一个综合的可持续性评估模型，其中包括（a）生命周期方法和可持续性理论。在该模型中，可持续性从三个类别进行评估：技术经济，环境和社会。提议的模型中总共包含了十三项指标，其中五项评估了技术经济绩效，六项评估了环境绩效，还有两项评估了社会影响。然后，通过将该模型应用于英格兰东北地区的太阳能光伏案例研究，证明了该模型的有效性。案例研究包括三种最常用的太阳能光伏发电系统：单晶（s-Si），多晶（p-Si）和碲化镉（CdTe）薄膜。

多晶硅太阳能光伏系统因其在技术经济和环境领域的高性能而被认为是最可持续的选择。基于CdTe的系统是所有这三个类别中最不受欢迎的选项；多晶系统在所有类别中均具有最佳性能。能量转换效率似乎是影响太阳能光伏系统可持续发展性能的最重要因素之一。尽管CdTe系统是这三种系统中成本最低的系统，但由于其能量转换效率低，它似乎在财务上是最不可行的选择。

这项研究使用CML2001方法估算所选技术对环境的影响，然后采用ReCiPe方法对估算结果进行交叉验证。由于CML和ReCiPe之间的影响定量方法不同，因此除了富营养化潜力外，所有指标均得到了相同的结果。