ArticleNature communications2026
Maximising environmental savings from silicon photovoltaics manufacturing to 2035.
Article in Nature communications, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Toward Sustainable Separation and Recovery of Critical Metals From Discarded Industrial Perovskite Solar Modules.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Strategic timing for the decarbonization contributions by China's photovoltaic manufacturers in global energy transition.Nature communications · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The silicon photovoltaics market is transitioning from the incumbent passivated emitter rear cell to the higher efficiency tunnel oxide passivated contact technology and it is crucial to understand the environmental impact of this change. Here, we conduct life cycle assessment to compare both technologies quantitatively and identify environmental savings in 15 of 16 environmental impact categories for tunnel oxide passivated contact. This includes a 6.5% reduction in carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, per watt peak at the expense of 15.2% increase in metal resource use, for photovoltaic modules manufactured in China and transported to central Europe. A critical factor in photovoltaics manufacturing is the carbon intensity of the electricity mix. We model the impact of photovoltaics production across different global regions, incorporating future electricity mix scenarios and a projection for photovoltaics deployment. Our model provides a forecast of the environmental impact of global photovoltaics manufacturing and identifies a potential reduction of 8.2 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 2035, depending on manufacturing location.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.