We investigate the impact of reshoring silicon photovoltaic manufacturing to the environment. In this study, we perform the first analysis to clarify the energy and environmental impacts of bringing c-Si PV production back to the U.S. by comparing the offshore (outsourced) manufacturing cases from 2010 to 2020 and the reshored (domestic) manufacturing scenarios from 2020 to 2050. To unilaterally quantify the impact of reshoring, we study the climate change impact of the hypothetical reshored scenario in 2020 and compare it to the offshore case in the same year. We also interpret the climate implications of a delayed reshoring schedule. To understand how the expansion of the solar panel industry that already greens the power grid could further promote climate change mitigation during its manufacturing stages together with the power of reshoring, we forecast reshored PV panel manufacturing scenarios with renewable penetration to the energy supply.
2020, 2025, 2030, 2035, 2040, 2045, 2050 reshored manfuacturing scenarios
2010, 2015, 2020 global sourced manfuacturing cases
There are 4 folders under this repository:
- Characterization factors
- LCI
- LCIA results
- Sensitivity analysis
There is 1 excel file in this folder including the characterization factors used in this study for all cases from 2010 to 2020 and all scenarios from 2020 to 2050.
There are 4 excel files in this folder. Two of them represent the LCI of global electricity mix and U.S. electricity mix, one shows the dashboard of all stages, and the other one shows the preliminary comprehensive LCI.
There are 27 excel files in this folder. There are two files showcasing the comprehensive LCIA results of all cases and scenarios. 18 files are presented to show each trading partner's LCIA results from 3 cases in 2010 (China, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Taiwan), 2015 (China, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan), and 2020 (China, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam), and 7 files are included the show the U.S. LCIA results from 7 scenarios in 2020 to 2050 (2020, 2025, 2030, 2035, 2040, 2045, 2050).
There is one file showing the sensitivity analysis calculation procedures.
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