The greenest decision on photovoltaic system allocation

Photovoltaic technologies can have a role in climate change mitigation being routed in sustainability if the decisions are taken wisely. Photovoltaic systems inherently avoid CO2 emissions while running since they replace a share of fossil sources in the energy mix of the country where they are installed. taking into account that the modules can be manufactured and installed in 138 different countries and that every country has a particular ambient conditions, Life Cycle Assessment methodology has been used to evaluate 1kW(p) of the three different photovoltaic technologies in order to find the best geographical combination manufacturer-installation, which is the geographical allocation that providing the highest reduction of CO2 emissions per kW(p) of installed PV capacity. This combined evaluation of the technology and the geographical allocation will provide the end users with additional information and thus, the greenest decision can be taken. Ethiopia, Mozambique, Zambia and Iceland are found to be ideal places for photovoltaic manufacture while Botswana, Turkmenistan, Kosovo, South Africa and Australia are the best locations where the PV systems can be installed, among others. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.