PV LCA data gets its biggest update in over a decade

The number that now anchors solar’s environmental accounting is 83: factory-level life-cycle assessments screened and assembled into a new IEA PVPS Task 12 dataset. Collected through France’s ADEME photovoltaic tender programme between 2022 and 2025, the assessments cover the crystalline silicon chain from polysilicon purification to wafer slicing, cell manufacturing, lamination and module assembly.

The update reaches beyond silicon modules. It includes TOPCon and PERC cells, CdTe thin-film modules, string inverters, mounting structures and reference systems for residential, commercial and utility-scale installations. The datasets are freely available through IEA PVPS and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences repository, and are compatible with the open-source BAFU:2025 Swiss federal LCA database.

The coverage is unusually wide for public photovoltaic data: approximately 29% of global polysilicon production, 16% of wafer production, 7% of cell production and 9% of module production. Of the 83 factories assessed, 82 are in China, reflecting the country’s reported share of global crystalline silicon manufacturing in 2024. First Solar supplied the CdTe data, covering its Series 6 and Series 7 platforms and accounting for more than 90% of global CdTe module production.

The dataset has limits. The report says the crystalline silicon sample may be slightly biased toward lower-carbon supply chains because export-oriented Chinese plants can use more advanced and material-efficient processes than the wider global average. To reduce a more direct carbon bias, Task 12 applies country-average electricity mixes rather than the cleaner site-specific mixes some manufacturers reported. For procurement or comparisons involving a named producer, the report recommends using that producer’s foreground data alongside these inventories.

So what changes in practice? Researchers, environmental product declaration teams, green-finance analysts and solar buyers gain a common, more current reference for comparing technologies and projects. Fraunhofer ISE also adds modelled data for a simulated, optimised 5 GWp monocrystalline silicon site, including closed-loop water management, waste valorisation and circular-production scenarios. Compared with industry datasets from 1999–2006, that simulated facility shows reductions of 11.7% to 94.3% across 14 of 15 assessed impact categories—but modelled and measured inventories are not interchangeable.