Life cycle energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions from an Amonix high concentrator photovoltaic system

With a growing demand for renewable energy, attention is drawn to concentrator photovoltaic (PV) systems, which require minimal amount of high efficiency solar cell materials. We investigate select life cycle environmental metrics for the 24 kW Amonix concentrator PV system. The results show that this system pays back the initial energy investment for its production in 1.3 yrs and generates life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 38 g CO2-eq/kWh for Phoenix, AZ. In contrast with flat-plate systems which generate most GHG emissions during the production of solar cells, the concentrator frames and the tracker are the most important sources of energy use and emissions while the cell materials contribute negligible effects.