Modelling recycling for the life cycle assessment of perovskite/silicon tandem modules

Special Issue on ‘EU PVSEC 2023: State of the Art and Developments in Photovoltaics’, edited by Robert Kenny and João Serra

Open Access

Table A1

Key adjustments of the LCI to IEA-PVPS (2020) to fit the design of SHJ and bifacial structure of tandem.

Process block	Input	Adjusted value	Original value	Unit	Comment
Tandem module manufacturing	Rear glass − solar grade	5.10 [36]	8.10 [14]	kg/m²	The thickness of the glass was adjusted from 4 mm to 2 mm [36].
	EVA	0.42 [36]	0.88 [14]	kg/m²	The thickness of the encapsulant has been adjusted from 940 um to 450 um [36].
	Aluminium frame	0.95 [36]	2.13 [14]	kg/m²	The weight of aluminum frame has been adjusted [36].
	Backsheet	Without	With		The bifacial structure of perovskite/Si tandem module does not contain the backsheet structure. The inventories of related components (polyvinylfluoride film, polyethylene terephthalate, PET polyethylene, HDPE) were removed.
	Electricity	14.00 [14]	14.00 [14]	kWh/m²	Change for an electricity mix in France
SHJ cell manufacturing	Silver (front+rear)	3.40 [29]	7.30 [36]	g/m²	The silver consumption related to SHJ single junction [36] is 7.3 g/m². In the tandem configuration, the bottom SHJ sub-modules receive less irradiation which implies a lower current. The silver consumption is adjusted to 3.4 g/m² [29].
	ITO	1.90 [29]	3.10 [36]	g/m²	The ITO consumption related to SHJ single junction [36] is 3.1 g/m². We applied a reduction of 40% following an opinion from an expert in PV [29].
	Electricity	11.90 [37]	17.70 [14]	kWh/m²	The consumption of electricity has been adjusted based on Louwen (2015) [37]. Change for an electricity mix in France
Single-Si wafer manufacturing	Single-Si	0.51 [36]	0.60 [14], 1.07 [32]	kg/m²	The consumption of single-Si for manufacturing of 1m² of wafer has been adjusted to 0.51 kg/m² [36]. This adjusted value is much lower than the one in Ecoinvent 3.6 [32] ‘single-Si wafer production, photovoltaic − RER − single-Si wafer, photovoltaic’: 1.07 kg/m².
Single-Si wafer manufacturing	Electricity	4.76 [14]	4.76 [14]	kWh/m²	Change for an electricity mix in Norway
Single-Si ingot production by Czochralski	Electricity	32.00 [14]	32.00 [14], 85.6 [32]	kWh/kg	This adjusted value is much lower than the one in Ecoinvent 3.6 [32] ‘silicon production, single crystal, Czochralski process, photovoltaics’: 85.6 kWh/kg. Change for an electricity mix in Norway
Solar-grade Si production	Electricity	49.10 [14]	49.10 [14], 109.89 [32]	kWh/kg	This adjusted value is much lower than the one in Ecoinvent 3.6 [32] ‘silicon production, solar grade, modified Siemens process’: 109.89 kWh/kg Change for an electricity mix in Norway

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