Post by Maurizio Cellura

Pleased to share that our paper "Eco-design of solar energy technologies: Literature-based Guidelines" is now in production at Energy Reports (Elsevier), developed together with Quyen Luu Sonia Longo Francesco Guarino, developed within the NEST - Network 4 Energy Sustainable Transition project. Link: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dX2ueY6m 🔗 https://lnkd.in/d5RAkT92 Solar energy is set to provide a significant share of the global energy supply over the coming decades, and this expansion will be driven by a new generation of innovative solar-driven technologies. The environmental performance of those technologies, however, is largely determined at the design stage, where the margin for improvement is widest and the cost of intervention is lowest. Eco-design is therefore most effective when it is embedded from the early phases of technology development, rather than retrofitted once a product has already reached the market. In this context, the paper proposes a conceptual framework that integrates general eco-design guidelines with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to support the development of more sustainable solar energy technologies. At its core is a structured collection of 164 eco-design guidelines, compiled from the existing literature and covering all life-cycle stages and sub-components of solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) systems. The framework also maps these guidelines onto the relevant product development stages and stakeholders, so that each measure can be applied where it is actually actionable. A large share of the guidelines is associated with the "R" strategies of the circular economy, refuse, rethink, reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, recycle, and recover, applied to materials, components, products, and technologies. The framework is designed to operate as a rapid review tool for screening environmental aspects across the life cycle, while a dedicated LCA-based assessment is recommended to identify the most suitable and context-sensitive measures for any specific technology. The intent is a practical bridge between general eco-design principles and quantitative life-cycle evidence, aligning the development of renewable energy systems (RES) with the environmental, energy, and economic objectives of the energy transition. NEST - Network 4 Energy Sustainable Transition, Gabriella Scapicchio Michela Chimienti Francesco Cupertino Eva Basile #Ecodesign #LCA #SolarEnergy #Photovoltaics #CSP #CircularEconomy #RenewableEnergy #Sustainability #EnergyTransition