Life cycle resource consumption and land use of photovoltaic (PV) system in South Korea

The worldwide demand for fossil and minerals are growing continuously. Also the demand for a number of metals and rare materials are forecast to double over the next 50 years (Muilerman and Blonk 2001). This resource depletion is also related with technologies for harvesting adequate amounts of sustainable energy. Renewable energy technology and systems such as photovoltaic (PV) and wind system are consuming rare materials and using available land as well as providing direct benefits at national and local levels. In South Korea, intensive effort started in 1988 under Promotion Act for New and Renewable Energy Development. According to the 3rd National Plan for Energy Technology Development, the Government is aiming at the supply of 6% of total energy demand by new and renewable energy by 2020 and 11% by 2030. In case of the PV system, the goal is targeted from 59,000 TOE productions in 2008 to 1,364,000 TOE productions in 2030 (about 2,311% increased). In this study, based on the photovoltaic energy production target by 2030, the life cycle resources requirement (e.g., types and amount of input metals and rare materials) and land use for PV system are calculated and showed. Scenario analysis was conducted for the PV production system. By increasing the energy production efficiency of PV system, the future reduced resources and land use can be calculated. Also, having a product-lifespan of over 30 years, we explored that by increasing the recycling rate of significant volumes of end-of-life PV modules, we could see the recovered resource amount.