Pathways to Decarbonise PV Deployment via Incorporating Renewable Electricity and Low‐Emissions Materials in Fabrication

The world's cumulative photovoltaic (PV) installation surpassed 2 terawatt (TWp) in 2024, with annual installation expected to reach 1 TWp by 2030. As the industry reaches grid parity worldwide and becomes one of the main energy sources, we explore how the PV supply chain and industry could be decarbonised to maximise climate benefits and ensure its role as an even lower‐carbon energy source. Despite a significantly lower carbon footprint than coal electricity, there remains significant potential to further reduce PV emissions by over 80%. For example, 38% of it originated from electricity consumption – the combustion of fossil fuels in electricity generation. In this work, we expand upon a previous publication and propose a stepwise approach to reach significantly low electricity emissions below 1 gCO 2 ‐eq/kWh. This is accomplished by reducing embodied emissions in PV modules through the use of low‐emissions electricity, recycled and/or green materials and by reducing effective emissions over the module lifetime by increasing the electricity generation using high‐yield mounting structures at high‐insolation locations, improving module stability and enhancing module efficiency. Finally, we consider the impact of using this low‐emissions electricity from PV to power the manufacturing of PV modules, aiming to reach