Summary
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is essential to ensure that renewable electricity generation projects effectively contribute to a sustainable energy transition. Although photovoltaic (PV) systems significantly reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to fossil-based generation, they also cause environmental impacts throughout their life cycle. Assessing these impacts is necessary to identify environmental hot spots, evaluate trade-offs, and support decisionmaking. This study applies LCA to evaluate the carbon and water footprints of conventional and floating photovoltaic (FPV) power plants through two case studies located in Pernambuco, northeastern Brazil. The assessment was based primarily on primary data, complemented by secondary data from the Ecoinvent 3.8 database, with impact assessment performed using the
Read more Read lessReCiPe 2016 method. A sensitivity analysis was conducted by changing the manufacturing location of polycrystalline PV modules. The case studies include a ground-mounted solar PV power plant (2.5 MWp) and a solar FPV power plant (1.0 MWp). The conventional PV system presented a carbon footprint of 73.83 gCO2eq./kWh, while the FPV system showed a lower value of 65.14 gCO2eq./kWh. In both cases, manufacturing and construction accounted for more than 95% of total emissions, with operation and decommissioning contributing marginally. Freshwater consumption was also dominated by the construction stage, resulting in total water footprints slightly above 2 L/kWh for both technologies. The sensitivity analysis indicated that relocating module manufacturing from China to Brazil reduced the carbon footprint and water scarcity impacts but increased water consumption. Overall, FPV systems exhibited a lower carbon footprint due to higher efficiency, reduced material requirements, and avoided land-use change, while water footprints remained comparable between technologies.
Additional informations
| Publication type | Session Materials |
|---|---|
| Reference | C3_11083_2026 |
| Publication year | |
| Publisher | CIGRE |
| Country | Brazil |
| Study committees | |
| File size | 724 KB |
| Price for non member | 30 € |
| Price for member | 30 € |
Authors
MATOS Denise - CEPEL Brazil; ABREU Juliano - CEPEL Brazil; RAMOS Marcia - CEPEL Brazil; RAUPP Igor - CEPEL Brazil; MOLLICA Alexandre - CEPEL Brazil; GARCIA Katia - CEPEL Brazil; LASSIO João G. - Glavis C. Brazil
Keywords
