Life cycle assessment of CIGS thin-film including end-of-life options

CIGS thin-film is a mature PV technology with a wide variety of applications, especially for integration (i.e. on facades, blind systems, roof tiles). A growth of CIGS application is foreseen due to the fast-growing PV market and the advantages of the technology, including flexibility, lightweight, and esthetics. With the increased application, there are growing concerns regarding waste and material scarcity. However, recycling technology of CIGS thin-film is still in the early stages. In literature, only a few small to medium-scale CIGS recycling technologies are described. This raises several research questions that are addressed in the study: 1. What are the available end-of-life (EoL) management options for CIGS thin-film? 2. What are the environmental impacts of all a CIGS thin-film life cycle (including raw material extraction – processing – use – disposal/recycling)? a. What are the different environmental impacts of the varying end-of-life options for CIGS thin-film? b. From a methodological point of view, what are the different approaches available in the LCA field to incorporate various end-of-life scenarios be incorporated into the LCA study? c. What additional improvements can be suggested to the production of CIGS thin-film? This study is comprised of a literature review and a life cycle assessment (LCA). The literature review study findings provided an overview of current recycling technologies for thin-film PV and inputs for the LCA stage. To obtain the inputs, past LCA studies were evaluated on their goal and scope, main assumptions/parameters used, impact assessment method and categories, results interpretation, and End-of-Life (EoL) scenario used. A cradle-to-grave LCA is conducted in this study to measure the environmental impact of CIGS thin-film including its end-of-life. An avoided burden approach is adopted, where the assessments were calculated using ReCiPe Midpoint and Endpoint impact assessment methodology in SimaPro software. Four different EoL scenarios are modelled; (1) incineration, ...