IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v333y2025ics0360544225031421.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Eco-design of emerging BIPV modules based on LCA and LCC

Author

Listed:
  • Luu, Le Quyen
  • Cellura, Maurizio
  • Guarino, Francesco
  • Longo, Sonia

Abstract

The decarbonization of energy sector requires the substantial contribution of solar photovoltaics (PV), with increasing energy efficiency, feasible production cost while minimizing the environmental impacts. This paper suggests eco-design measures for the innovative building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) modules by applying life cycle thinking approach. The environmental impacts and costs of BIPV modules based on silicon and perovskite solar cells are quantified and evaluated according to the ISO14040 and ISO14044 standards, the guidelines of International Energy Agency for life cycle assessment (LCA) on solar PV and the Product Environmental Footprint of the European Commission. All the environmental impacts of the BIPV modules are quantified from cradle to grave per 1 kWh of electricity. The same functional unit is applied for life cycle costs, with consideration of manufacturing costs only. Climate change impact of BIPV modules ranges from 2.31E-02 kgCO2e to 6.83E-01 kgCO2e per kWh of electricity, depending on their transmittance, materials of the solar cells and end-of-life management strategies. Fossil resource use varies between 2.74E-01 MJ and 1.05E+01 MJ, and mineral and metal resource use is from 1.63E-06 kg Sb eq to 1.14E-04 kg Sb eq per kWh. Besides, levelized cost of electricity generated from BIPV modules ranges from 0.01 EUR to 3 EUR per kWh. The environmental impact and cost assessments of BIPV modules indicate that the eco-design need to improve the efficiency and lifetime of perovskite materials and reduce the cost for cell fabrication, so that they can compete with silicon based BIPV modules.

Suggested Citation

  • Luu, Le Quyen & Cellura, Maurizio & Guarino, Francesco & Longo, Sonia, 2025. "Eco-design of emerging BIPV modules based on LCA and LCC," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:333:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225031421
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.137500
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225031421
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2025.137500?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:333:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225031421. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.