The International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme has released its most comprehensive update of publicly available life cycle inventory data for photovoltaic systems in more than ten years. The IEA PVPS Task 12 refresh uses 83 factory datasets from French tender programs together with new bottom up simulations to reflect current manufacturing methods such as TOPCon and large scale utility systems.
The report updates the 2020 Task 12 life cycle inventory and adds new datasets for TOPCon and PERC monocrystalline silicon supply chains, cadmium telluride modules, inverters and mounting hardware, plus reference profiles for residential, commercial and utility scale systems and country specific PV electricity mixes.
Life cycle inventories document the material and energy flows and emissions linked to the production of PV systems and form the foundation of life cycle assessments. Reliable and current inventory data are essential for credible environmental assessments, for comparing technologies and for identifying where solar can further reduce its footprint.
The monocrystalline silicon datasets are based on 83 quality screened factory level assessments from the French PV tender process between 2022 and 2025. These cover around 29% of global polysilicon capacity, 16% of wafer capacity, 7% of cell capacity and 9% of module capacity. CdTe data come from the dominant global producer and represent more than 90% of the CdTe module market.
All monocrystalline silicon datasets passed a sequential review that included tender framework documentation requirements, independent technical verification, official attestation, expert aggregation and anonymisation, and a final review by international IEA PVPS Task 12 experts. This process is intended to ensure that the public PV life cycle inventory data meet high standards for transparency and quality.
For the first time the report includes simulation based bottom up life cycle inventories for advanced manufacturing of monocrystalline silicon modules. These models cover the full polysilicon to module chain, including production infrastructure and circularity measures, and are designed to support prospective analysis and process optimisation alongside industry measured data.
The update is aimed at researchers, policymakers, industry and life cycle assessment practitioners who need transparent, high quality datasets to evaluate the environmental performance of today’s PV technologies and to guide decisions on procurement, policy and product design.
Link to download the full report HERE 
Author: Bryan Groenendaal






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