A Systematic Review on Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Solar PV Modules

This review examines an environmental LCA of solar modules and cell technologies across 18 environmental indicators to assess the performance of current solar module types. It provides a more comprehensive analysis by including studies that account for recycling credits in end-of-life PV waste management. The literature search covered seven databases up to 20 November 2025, resulting in the selection of 43 papers focused on solar modules, LCA, and recycling for data extraction. The methodological quality and risk of bias of included studies were evaluated based on compliance with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 requirements. Due to the diversity of methodologies, functional units, and system boundaries across studies, it is observed that there is a wide range of emission values for the various solar PV technologies, with some studies reporting very high or very low figures. Considering one of the main impact categories, GHG emissions of key PV technologies, including mono c-Si, multi c-Si, CdTe, and PERC modules, for the study period 2015–2025 have been reported in the ranges of 493–2760, 640–2418, 312–2140, and 425–1759 kg CO ₂ -eq/kW p . It can be generally expected that when assessed under comparable LCA frameworks, emerging solar cells are more likely to exhibit lower emissions than conventional silicon-based solar cells across most indicators. Moreover, results from recent studies show an environmental improvement for the various module and cell types, largely due to advancements in material efficiency during the optimized manufacturing process. A major limitation of this study is the omission of service lifetime considerations, as most sustainability assessments are ideally based on lifetime energy generation (kWh). However, given the assumption of comparable lifetimes among the assessed module types, the use of kW p -based emissions remains suitable for relative comparisons, although possible differences in long-term performance may not be fully captured.