Análisis del Ciclo de Vida del proceso de recuperación de un panel fotovoltaico de silicio policristalino en Costa Rica

Abstract

Within the last years, solar photovoltaic industry has grown considerably and currently Costa Rica does not have a waste management plan for photovoltaic panels. For this reason, the environmental profile of recovering a module according to the management alternatives arrangements available in Costa Rica for waste treatment was assessed. In order to achieve this, a polycrystalline silicon 2 based photovoltaic panel was dismantled to characterize its materials. Once the materials were characterized, an evaluation matrix was performed with variables that take into account the energy and environmental point of view. According to the results obtained in the matrix, a Life Cycle Assessment was performed in the SimaPro software, focusing on end-of-life phase. The study shows that the recovery of materials would significantly contribute to reduce the environmental profile of the end-of-life of polycrystalline modules. In total, the recovery of materials would reduce the potential impact on climate change in the end-of-life from 1.43kg CO2 eq/m2 to -49.3kg CO2 eq/m2 (approximate reduction of -50.73 kg CO2 eq/m2) and in terms of fossil fuels (oil) from 5.54MJ/m2 to -491.4MJ/m2 (approximate reduction of -496.94 MJ/m2). In Costa Rica there are installed near 10544.24m2 of photovoltaic modules in the year 2015; if all the solar photovoltaic capacity were recovered, the impact in climate change would be reduced by -534.91t CO2 eq, and fossil depletion by -5.24TJ