This book provides a detailed life cycle assessment of photovoltaic technologies in order to analyse the environmental and socioeconomic impacts that a large deployment of solar photovoltaic systems will produce in the near future.

Including both commercial and emerging technologies, the book presents the energy and materials requirements to manufacture solar electricity power systems at the order of the TeraWatt scale deployment as is envisaged by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) for the near future. It discusses current manufacturing practices and how these may...