Industrial symbiosis in glass and solar photovoltaic manufacturing

▼This page is part of a Michigan Tech's Open Sustainability Technology Research Group project exploring industrial symbiosis of large-scale solar photovoltaic manufacturing plants. By coupling traditionally separate industries in the physical exchange of materials, energy, water, and by-products we can reduce environmental impact while providing companies with an economic competitive advantage. Learn more.
Industrial symbiosis in photovoltaic manufacturing- the Big Picture * Glass+PV plant * Silane recycling * Glass+Greenhouse

This page was developed by the Queen's University Applied Sustainability Research Group.

In order to alleviate production costs and increase the environmental performance of solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing, an eco-industrial park for GW-scale production of PV is proposed. This article quantifies the inputs and outputs for the glass manufacturing component of such a system using standard manufacturing techniques. Utilizing industrial symbiosis in this way, potential reductions for such a plant were found to be about 30,000 tons/year in raw materials and over 220,000 GJ/year in embodied energy.

Schematic diagram of Industrial symbiosis in photovoltaic manufacturing. The highlighted red area is the industries studied in this project.

• Amir H. Nosrat, Jack Jeswiet, and Joshua M. Pearce, "Cleaner Production via Industrial Symbiosis in Glass and Large-Scale Solar Photovoltaic Manufacturing", Science and Technology for Humanity (TIC-STH), 2009 IEEE Toronto International Conference, pp.967-970, 26-27 Sept. 2009. open access
• Amir H. Nosrat, Robert Andrews, Jack Jeswiet, and Joshua M. Pearce, "Industrial symbiosis of a glass factory and greenhouses in photovoltaic manufacturing",(under review).

• A literature review pertaining to industrial symbiosis can be found at the Industrial symbiosis literature review
• Industrial symbiosis in photovoltaic manufacturing
  • Joshua M. Pearce, "Industrial Symbiosis for Very Large Scale Photovoltaic Manufacturing", Renewable Energy 33, pp. 1101–1108, 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2007.07.002 Open access [1]
• Greenhouse waste heat exchange
  • Rob Andrews and Joshua Pearce, "Environmental and Economic Assessment of a Greenhouse Waste Heat Exchange", Journal of Cleaner Production 19, pp. 1446-1454 (2011). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2011.04.016 Open access: [2]