Photovoltaics: Arkema's innovative materials
Photovoltaic energy is renewable, sustainable and clean, and demand for this source of energy is growing rapidly throughout the world. For about the last ten years, the Arkema group has been developing new solar panel materials, especially polymers.
The aim of this work has been to increase the sturdiness, lifetime and performance of solar panels. Another goal is to make the manufacture of panels quicker and less costly.
Arkema is therefore providing industry with products and solutions to reduce production costs and to save on silicon, while also making it easier to recycle end of life panels.
Arkema's solutions to optimize solar panel efficiency
There have been several major innovations:
- Kynar® Film – a stable and resistant film
Kynar® films are used to manufacture extreme performance photovoltaic module backsheet membranes. Thanks to their very good high temperature and humidity performance, their UV resistance as well as the stability of their white color (which contributes to reflecting light toward the silicon), they are key elements in the longevity and increased energy yield of solar panels.
- Luperox® Solar – improving processes
This organic peroxides used for the cross-linking of EVA - served as cell encpasulation - speed up the production rates of solar panels, thank's to its short reticulation time.
- Apolhya® Solar – encapsulating thin layers
This flexible nanostructured thermoplastic polymer is designed to encapsulate the new generation components of photovoltaic modules, known as "thin layers". It also reduces the production time of panels and makes end of life recycling easier.