Photovoltaic Power Generation And Its Environmental Effects Analysis

The non-renewable energy such as oil,gas,coal are using up in the world, people are forced to search new sources of energy. Nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal and other new energy forms are all emerging rapidly. However, considering the adequacy of resources, the cleanliness of usage, photovoltaic power gets rapid development in the renewable energy application field.In this paper, the research about current situation of photovoltaic power generation was conducted. The aim of this study is to analyze the possible impact of photovoltaic power generation to the environment. Our study was conducted in three parts. The first part was to understand its principles, characteristics, classification and production status. Then, the environmental effects of the PV system, including environmental factors in site selection of photovoltaic power plant and soil erosion caused in use, were analyzed and discussed. The second part of this thesis made a detailed analysis of the life cycle environmental impact of the solar cell during all stages including raw materials acquisition stage, the production stage, and the usage and disposal stage. The third part in this paper was the experimental section. PV module was dismantled and the toxic elements leached during the process were detected. Although photovoltaic technology is one of the most clean energy, there are still some pollutants released during the production and disposal process of PV modules. The possible environmental effects caused by photovoltaic power generation should be paid attentions in the future.