Life cycle toxicity analysis of emerging PV cells

The rapid improvement in the performance of photovoltaic (PV) solar cells has resulted in an overall reduction in the environmental impacts. Simultaneously, the source of the impacts has shifted from the processing energy to the materials themselves. We analyzed the potential toxicity of new materials to provide insight into material and technology selection. We evaluated metal releases to different ecological compartments and estimated human and ecological toxicity potentials using the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. We observed that leaching of metals to the environment during the use or end-of-life phase can significantly increase the toxicity.