This report provides the most comprehensive update of publicly available life cycle inventory (LCI) data for photovoltaic (PV) systems in more than ten years. The report supports researchers, policymakers, industry and life cycle assessment (LCA) practitioners with transparent, high-quality datasets for evaluating the environmental performance of today’s PV technologies.
Life cycle inventories form the foundation of life cycle assessments by documenting the material and energy flows as well as emissions associated with the production of PV systems. Reliable and up-to-date LCI data are essential for producing credible environmental assessments, comparing technologies and identifying opportunities to further improve the sustainability of solar energy.
The new report updates the previous IEA PVPS Task 12 LCI report published in 2020 and includes new datasets for TOPCon and PERC monocrystalline silicon PV supply chains, CdTe PV modules, balance-of-system components, residential, commercial, and utility-scale reference PV systems, and country-specific PV electricity mixes.
Key highlights:
- Most comprehensive PV LCI update in over a decade: The monocrystalline silicon datasets draw on 83 quality-screened factory-level LCAs from the French PV tender process (2022–2025), covering approximately 29% of global polysilicon, 16% of wafer, 7% of cell, and 9% of module production capacity. CdTe data come from the dominant global producer, representing more than 90% of the CdTe module market.
- Rigorous quality assurance for public PV LCI data: The monocrystalline silicon datasets passed through a sequential review process spanning tender-framework documentation requirements, independent technical verification, official attestation, expert aggregation and anonymization, and final review by international IEA PVPS Task 12 experts.
- First-ever inclusion of simulation-based bottom-up LCIs: The report introduces simulation-based LCIs for advanced manufacturing of monocrystalline silicon modules as a complement to industry-measured data. Covering the full polysilicon-to-module chain including production infrastructure and circularity measures, these datasets serve prospective analysis and process optimization.
