Use of Another EPD as Proxy for C3 and D Stages in PV Cell LCI

Hello everyone,

I’m working on the LCI for the end-of-life (C3) and recycling (D) stages of a PV cell (not the entire module). Due to a lack of process-specific data, I’m currently using C3 and D values from another EPD that shares the same geographical scope and assumes the same end-of-life scenario, but is based on a PV module with a different material composition than mine and clearly emissions are reported for the whole module, not per each material.

How I am gonna use that data is to allocate emission to mass of material, getting the emission for recycling cell and use it in my study.

I’m aware that differences in material composition (e.g. encapsulant and glass) will affect emissions and recycling potential, which could impact the accuracy of my results. However, at this stage, it is the only available data I can use as a reference. And it is worth to mention, I am expecting that it would not affect significantly the conclusions as most of the impacts is coming from A1-A3.

Would this approach be considered acceptable?

Thank you in advance for your insights.

Hi Mahdi,

Thanks for posting!

If your study is not for an EPD that will be third party verified, the approach you mentioned, noting its limitations, would be a reasonable one to use.

While it isn’t perfect since not everything is linear, scaling impacts based on mass is common in the absence of specific data.

Good luck with your study!
Graham

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