US-made solar panels could cut emissions by 30%, says study
Source: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2023/03/20/us-made-solar-panels-could-cut-emissions-by-30-says-study/
Author: BEATRIZ SANTOS
Reshoring crystalline silicon PV panel manufacturing to the United States by 2035 could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% and energy consumption by 13% from 2020 levels, according to scientists from Cornell University. Domestic production of solar panels could speed up decarbonization in the United States, according to a new study by Cornell University researchers. They shared their findings in “Reshoring silicon photovoltaics manufacturing contributes to decarbonization and climate change mitigation,” which was recently published in Nature Communications. If solar panel manufacturing returns to the United States by 2035, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions could be reduced by 30%, said the scientists. Energy consumption could also be cut by 13% from 2020, when the United States relied almost entirely on Malaysia (38%), Vietnam (21%), Thailand (17%), South Korea (9%), China (6%), and Singapore (3%) for PV module imports. The academics performed a comparative and prospective life-cycle assessment (LCA) to clarify the energy and environmental impacts of bringing crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV production to the United States. The LCA includes emissions during upstream module manufacturing, as well as during operations, maintenance, and end-of-life treatment stages. They conducted a quantitative analysis based on global warming potential (GWP) and cumulative energy demand (CED), by comparing the offshore manufacturing cases from 2010 to 2020 and the reshored manufacturing scenarios from 2020 to 2050. “The reshored scenario in 2020 is studied to examine the climate impacts of solely bringing manufacturing back to the US by comparing it with the outsourced manufacturing case in 2020,” the scientists explained. “Moreover, reshored scenarios from 2025 to 2050 in five-year increments are forecasted with cleaner power compositions such as wind, solar, geothermal, etc., building up from 21% renewable power contribution in 2020 to 42% in 2050.”