Fig. 6: Carbon emission factor/greenhouse gas emission factor and energy payback time of outsourced cases (2010, 2015, 2020) and reshored scenarios (2020, 2025, 2030, 2035, 2040, 2045, 2050).

The switch to reshored manufacturing and increasing renewable penetration to the power grid work together to drop (a) carbon emission factor and lower (b) energy payback time (EPBT) of manufacturing c-Si PV panels. The presented results are normalized and vary based on the colors shown on the color bar. In particular, the red and pink colors represent high carbon emission factors and high EPBT, suggesting more energy and environmental burdens, while the blue and green colors represent low carbon emission factors and low EPBT, indicating lower burdens. The 2020 outsourced case is defined as the reference for normalization.