Reverse Manufacturing Enables Perovskite Photovoltaics to Reach the Carbon Footprint Limit of a Glass Substrate

doi:10.1016/j.joule.2020.02.001

Joule

Volume 4, Issue 4, 15 April 2020, Pages 882-901

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2020.02.001 Get rights and content

Under an Elsevier user license

open archive

Highlights

•
Without further innovation, PV production will lead to significant CO₂ emissions
•
Constraints and opportunities of CO₂-neutral photovoltaics are discussed
•
Reverse manufacturing enables reaching the lowest CO₂ limit
•
The realization is demonstrated by glass-solder-encapsulated perovskite PV

Context & Scale

To limit anthropogenic global warming, mankind is facing the challenge to rapidly minimize greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energies like photovoltaics (PVs) are a key technology to replace fossil fuels. The production of PV modules requires energy and thus today emits CO₂. We present projections for the CO₂ emissions of a future large-scale PV industry during the transition phase. If PV is emerging as a main energy technology, the CO₂ emissions from PV production will have a significant share in global greenhouse gas emissions.

We show that the CO₂ emissions can be minimized in the ideal technology scenario of PV-active glass. This is demonstrated by implementing emerging high-efficient perovskite photo-absorbers in a reverse manufacturing concept via in situ crystallization, resulting in printed, glass-solder-encapsulated perovskite PV. Our findings are crucial for the design and implementation of future PV technologies with the lowest ecological footprint.

Summary

Although it still contributes to less than 2% of the worldwide electricity generation, photovoltaics (PVs) is on the way to becoming a key energy technology for a global future renewable energy infrastructure. We present projections of worldwide CO₂ emissions of the future PV industry, finding that these emissions will likely surpass those caused by the global shipping or aviation sector. As an alternative, we propose a fully printed PV reverse manufacturing concept that minimizes the carbon footprint to the ultimate lower limit of the glass substrate fabrication. This so called “in situ” approach is based on a perovskite absorber that is highly durable and encapsulated with glass solder between float glass substrates, reducing the CO₂-footprint of conventional PV modules by 1/20^th. Yielding a certified stabilized efficiency of 9.3%, this record efficiency for glass-solder-encapsulated perovskite PV paves the way for future solar cells with the lowest carbon footprints.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords

carbon footprint

CO₂ emissions

photovoltaics

perovskite solar cells

float glass

in situ solar cell

energy scenario

global CO₂ budget

low carbon technology

Cited by (0)

³: Lead Contact