Ecological footprint of our thin-film modules
01.07.2022  |  Company

Ecological footprint of our SKALA modules

For climatic conditions such as those prevailing in Central Europe, a colored AVANCIS SKALA module must generate "green" electricity for approx. 1.5 years at the current German electricity mix in order to save in this way the amount of CO2 that was necessary for its manufacture.

The carbon footprint of a product or service measures its impact on global warming in kg CO2 equivalents. It is thus one of the results of a standardized life cycle analysis, in which the effects of production and the starting materials, among other things, on the climate are considered.

At AVANCIS, such an analysis was carried out in 2021, among other things as part of a student project, resulting in a CO2 footprint of approx. 59 kg CO2 equivalents for the production of a PV module in an idealized case. Here, the contributions from the electricity consumption of the Fab2 in Torgau (43 %), the front and rear glass (26 %) and the backrail (11 %) were identified as the three largest items.

The calculated value is in the range of published studies on other PV modules and ranks in the middle of high-quality façade materials. Unlike passive façades, however, a BIPV facade produces "green" electricity and, by displacing "gray" electricity with fossil fuel-generated content, arithmetically achieves a negative carbon footprint during its lifetime.

For climatic conditions such as those prevailing in Central Europe, a colored AVANCIS SKALA module must generate "green" electricity for approx. 1.5 years at the current German electricity mix in order to save the amount of CO2 that was necessary for its production in this way.