Detailed Life Cycle Assessment has been applied to three PV technologies: c-Si, CdTe, and Organic.

The avoided CO₂ emissions vary up to 26,000 times depending on the place where the devices are manufactured and assembled.

The manufacture and the transport of the modules imply lower impacts than the avoided emissions during the lifetime of the PV.

2012 PV market avoided 19 megatones of CO₂ emissions during its first year of performance.