Innovations in solar energy, specifically photovoltaics, have seen significant progress in efficiency and installation area over the past decade. The further production of photovoltaics is a necessary component for any sustainable energy portfolio. Industrial choices of raw materials, their use, flows, and wastes are central to many aspects of industrial ecology. In the case of solar materials, there are significant broader impacts questions around strategic mineral availability, mining impacts, toxicity in manufacturing, and material lifespan and end of use. The determination of system boundaries for material life cycle analysis require significant considerations of issues such as selection of cognitive values when choosing sustainability indicators, classification of boundaries (closure of sets), and framework assumptions about how materials are consumed and circulated.
This lesson will take us one week to complete. Please refer to the Course Syllabus for specific time frames and due dates. Specific directions for the assignment below can be found within this lesson.
Requirements | Assignment Details |
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To Do | Watch and familiarize yourself with all the Lesson 5 materials. |
Read and Watch | Week 7:
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Assignment | Week 7:
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If you have any questions, please post them to our Questions? discussion forum (not email), located under the Discussions tab in Canvas. I will check that discussion forum daily to respond. While you are there, feel free to post your own responses if you, too, are able to help out a classmate.
Links
[1] https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-and-silver-solar-panels-159397/
[2] https://www.pexels.com/@pixabay
[3] https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/
[4] http://pubs.acs.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/doi/abs/10.1021/es101316v
[5] http://pubs.acs.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/doi/abs/10.1021/es071763q
[6] http://pubs.acs.org.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/doi/pdf/10.1021/es3038824
[7] https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/