Abstract
Solar power offers a “greener” alternative to traditional methods such as electricity and hot water production. To quantify the benefits of solar power, a life cycle analysis (LCA) of thermal solar plants is necessary, which requires environmental impact assessments of all materials used in their fabrication. In this paper we report on an LCA of a thermal solar installation with flat collectors for domestic hot water production, built on the roof of a private house in Tudela de Duero, Valladolid (a city 190 km north of Madrid, Spain). In addition, the EPS2000 method (as willingness to pay to restore changes in the safe guard subjects) was used to find which one of the two concepts, conventional or solar installation, has the least impact on the environment. Thus, the financial and environmental profit of the solar power installation was analyzed in comparison with a natural gas boiler system to show their respective environmental impacts and the economics that make them more or less profitable at the end of their service life.