Life Cycle Assessment of Organic Photovoltaics

The unlimited abundance of solar resources ensures that photovoltaic technologies have the potential to supply a significant amount of the energy required to fulfill currentand futureenergy demands while reducing greenhousegases emissions. So far, the high cost of photovoltaics compared to other energy sources has limited their use. However, emerging technologies, such as organic photovoltaics (OPV), which take advantage of man-made materials and solution processing, hold the promise for inexpensive devices. While solar cells could be an alternative to energy produced from fossil fuels, it is necessary to ensure that, in doing so, new environmental issues are not created. For this reason, life cycle assessments (LCAs) can be undertaken on emerging organic technologies to evaluate a priori the environmental impact of large-scale production and identify pathways toward sustainable energy production. In this chapter, the methodology of life-cycle assessment is presented, emphasizing photovoltaics usages, and is applied to emerging organic photovoltaics.