Economic and environmental sustainability of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar panels recycling.

End-of-life management of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin-film solar photovoltaics (PV) panels is crucial due to the necessity of recycling valuable elements such as indium ($400/kg) and gallium ($618/kg), ensuring both economic viability and environmental sustainability. In this study, we analyze the private and external costs of end-of-life management for CIGS PV designed for mass-scale recycling. Our findings reveal that the private and external costs of end-of-life management range from ∼$3.

Techno-economic and life cycle assessment of agrivoltaic system (AVS) designs.

Land use competition between agricultural activities and ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment has increased worldwide attention to hybrid agriculture, and PV systems known as agrivoltaic systems (AVS) in efforts to increase the efficiency of energy and food production and minimize the land use competition. However, little is known about AVS's economic feasibility and environmental tradeoffs. Here we aim to evaluate the techno-economic and environmental impacts of four AVS configurations (full density, half density, mono-axial tracking, and bi-axial tracking) and compare their performance against PV-only systems.

Social Acceptance of Greywater Reuse in Rural Areas.

Like many countries, Palestine suffers from water scarcity. Here, treated greywater is considered an essential nonconventional water resource. We aim to identify some wastewater reuse and disposal practices in rural areas and assess the acceptance level of different reuses of greywater.

Environmental impacts of recycling crystalline silicon (c-SI) and cadmium telluride (CDTE) solar panels.

There has been a substantial growth in the deployment of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels in the past couple decades. Solar PVs have a life span of about 25 years and much of the deployed PVs will soon reach their end of life (EoL). It is now timely to plan for the EoL of PVs to recover valuable materials and recycle PV modules sustainably.

Diversity analysis of water sources, uses, and flows from source to use in the USA.

Diversifying a system can reduce risk from- and increase resilience to perturbation. For this reason, the concept of diversity has been used in many different fields but its use in analyzing engineering infrastructure has been limited. In particular, the diversity of water sources and uses and the diversity of how sources are connected to uses (flow) have never been analyzed.

Ecological network analysis of growing tomatoes in an urban rooftop greenhouse.

Urban agriculture has emerged as an alternative to conventional rural agriculture seeking to foster a sustainable circular economy in cities. When considering the feasibility of urban agriculture and planning for the future of food production and energy, it is important to understand the relationships between energy flows throughout the system, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and make suggestions to optimize the system. To address this need, we analyzed the energy flows for growing tomatoes at a rooftop greenhouse (RTG).

Management of rainwater harvesting and its impact on the health of people in the Middle East: case study from Yatta town, Palestine.

Water-related diseases are a primary problem in Palestine where many residents revert to harvested rainwater as their primary water source due to water shortages within the area. From an environmental engineering perspective, it is already well known that certain situations (e.g.

Environmental Impacts from Photovoltaic Solar Cells Made with Single Walled Carbon Nanotubes.

An ex-ante life cycle inventory was developed for single walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) PV cells, including a laboratory-made 1% efficient device and an aspirational 28% efficient four-cell tandem device. The environmental impact of unit energy generation from the mono-Si PV technology was used as a reference point. Compared to monocrystalline Si (mono-Si), the environmental impacts from 1% SWCNT was ∼18 times higher due mainly to the short lifetime of three years.