Outstanding LCA result for GEN24 Plus

The development of sustainable products and services is an important element of the sustainability strategy at Fronius. During the product development process we focus on very specific requirements: it is particularly important to us that our products deliver a long service life, as well as efficiency and effectiveness, repairability and recyclability. The project team working on the “Sustainability by Design” programme has devoted itself to finding out just how sustainable Fronius products really are, and has conducted a comprehensive life cycle analysis for the Fronius GEN24 Plus inverter.

But what does that actually mean?

Fronius worked together with an external sustainability expert for a whole year to analyse the life cycle of the GEN24 Plus inverter.

Everything came under the microscope, from raw materials and components, to sustainability in production as well as the transport routes and long service life of products, right through to repairability and recycling.

Raw materials & components

As a sustainable cycle starts with raw materials and components, the team collaborated with various suppliers and referred to databases to gather as much data about the components as possible.

Transport routes

How far do the components and raw materials travel before they reach the production line, and what distance do the products travel before they reach the customer?

Sustainable production

How high is the energy consumption at the Fronius sites, and where does this energy come from? Which production processes and materials really affect the carbon footprint?

Durability of our products

How long is the service life of the GEN24 inverter and how efficient is it? How much clean, green energy does the inverter produce and what electricity mix does it serve to substitute in the various countries?

Repairability and recycling

How readily repairable, reusable and recyclable are the products? Is recycling also considered during the design and production phases?

Outstanding eco-balance of our GEN24 PLUS inverters

The results of the life cycle analysis conducted by Fronius are very impressive and have been confirmed by the highly respected Fraunhofer Institute¹: the environmental benefits are up to 44,9 times greater than the energy required to manufacture and operate the inverter as well as reuse and dispose of the waste².

Up to 516 258 kg of CO2e are saved with the GEN24 Plus, which equates to around 245 flights from Munich to New York. The CO2e payback time of the climate effects lies between 0.7 and 3.3 years, depending on the scenario².

“The fact that the CO2e emissions saved outweigh those generated during production, operation and disposal is something that very few electronic products can claim.”

Martin Hackl, Global Director Marketing Solar Energy

Climate impacts over the total life cycle

Which phase of the product life cycle has the greatest impact on the climate, the so-called carbon footprint?

An analysed scenario serves to shed light on these climate impacts: a Symo GEN24 5.0 Plus is operated in Germany for 20 years, installed with conventional PV modules and disposed of at the end of its service life through metal recycling and waste incineration.

Components

This shows that the components account for one of the largest shares at 30.5% and accordingly represent one of the largest levers. One thing in particular stands out: due to the comparatively high emission factors for ICs (memory components), transistors, IGBT modules and capacitors, these already cause 41.9% of the climate impact of the components despite their low weight share of only 4.0%.

Engineering plastics, in turn, account for over 22.6% of the weight, but only 11.0% of the climate impact. In the case of the heavy aluminium heat sink, whichaccounts for 25.1% of the weight, the use of 100% recycled material allows it to cause only 10.1% of the climate impact. The evidence-based life cycle analysis also shows that cardboard packaging plays a very minor role in the climate impact.

"With “Sustainability by Design” we are taking product sustainability even further: our goal is evidence-based product development with optimised sustainability covering the total life cycle – from raw material, to production, to transport and “end-of-life."

David Schönmayr, Program Lead Sustainability by Design

To be continued in part 2 …

The next article will reveal how exactly the phases that follow contribute to the climate impact, and what exactly Fronius is taking away from this life cycle analysis for application in further product developments.

¹ The Fraunhofer Institutes offer research services to clients from industry and the public sector.
The aim of this applied research is to use science and research for innovative products and applications.

² Depending on the device type and country. The indicators used here were the climate, fossil fuels, metal resources, human toxicity, dust, etc.

Disclaimer: As Fronius uses the results of the life cycle analyses for the continuous optimisation of product development, it is particularly important that this data is kept up to date. For this reason, updates of the life cycle analyses are carried out as required. Since a high degree of transparency is required, especially when it comes to sustainability, Fronius also considers it essential to communicate these updates on an ongoing basis.

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SOLAR ENERGY

Outstanding LCA result for our GEN24 Plus inverter - part 1