Carrying capacity based environmental impact assessment of Building Integrated Photovoltaics

To fulfil (part of) the electricity demand of buildings, photovoltaics (PV) can be added to the building envelope (BAPV) or integrated in the building envelope (BIPV). To assess environmental impact, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools are applied. In this study, an LCA method is developed for BIPV configurations. The LCA is applied on three different PV technologies; Multi-Si, Amorf-Si, and copper indium gallium (di) selenide (CIGS), in three different BIPV rooftop configurations; non-ventilated, ventilated with an aluminum construction and ventilated with a bamboo construction. The assessment covers three end-of-life scenarios; reusing, recycling and circulation. The conclusions of the assessment are that 1 m(2) Amorf-Si bamboo ventilated configuration shows the lowest environmental impact of 3700m(2).a, given the investigated BIPV configurations with current maximum recycling percentages of PV technologies. To lower the claim on carrying capacity, reusing and recycling percentages have to be improved and non-renewable resources have to be eliminated or replaced by renewable resources. With 100% recycling, 1m(2) non-ventilated Amorf-Si configuration shows the lowest environmental impact of 7.44m(2).a, given the investigated BIPV configurations.