Life Cycle and Environmental Impacts of Floating Photovoltaic Systems

388.7 KB Excel file quantifying environmental impacts of water-floating solar photovoltaics (FPV). The dataset harmonizes existing peer-reviewed life cycle assessments and adds two case studies, authored by Daniela M. Seitz and last updated in May 2026. It includes prospective material recycling and changes in water evaporation and aquatic GHG emissions.

Use Cases

• Compare GHG footprints of FPV and ground-based PV systems based on harmonized life cycle assessments.
• Evaluate water savings from prevented evaporation versus system water consumption.
• Analyze the contribution of biogenic aquatic GHG emissions to the overall FPV footprint.
• Model prospective environmental impacts incorporating future material recycling options.
• Assess the trade-offs of deploying FPV on inland water bodies for renewable energy capacity.

Strengths

• Includes harmonized data from all existing peer-reviewed life cycle assessments on FPV.
• Adds two specific case studies to the aggregated analysis.
• Considers the full life cycle, including future material recycling and local environmental changes.
• Quantifies specific metrics: an average GHG footprint of 36 gCO2 kWh–1 and water savings.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect geographic or methodological bias inherent to the aggregated studies.

Provenance

Source

figshare, authored by Daniela M. Seitz.

Collection Method

Harmonization and comparison of existing peer-reviewed life cycle assessments, supplemented by two case studies.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-19 00:29:27; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Focus on inland water bodies; specific locations are not detailed.