OPTIMISATION OF THE FRONTSHEET ENCASPULANT FOR INCREASED RESISTANCE OF LIGHTWEIGHT GLASS-FREE SOLAR PV MODULES
Authors/Creators
- 1. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratory (PV-Lab)
- 2. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratory (PV-Lab), CSEM, PV-center
Description
The aim of this work is to propose a BIPV module design that is contemporarily lightweight, rigid and
resistant to the relevant climatic and mechanical stresses (e.g. exposure to DH, UV, hail impacts, etc), supporting
structure and reliability at the same time. Encapsulants represent a key part in the PV structure, acting as the bonding
layer between the front or back sheet and the PV cell. Therefore, they need to provide excellent adhesion between these
components, which is achieved via lamination. They also have to be transparent and provide outstanding electrical
insulation and impact resistance to the module. All these properties must be retained after years of exposure to the UV
from the sun or other severe weather conditions. With this work, we want to provide a “recipe” to define and qualify
the optimum front sheet encapsulant for the proposed lightweight composite PV modules.
Keywords: lightweight PV modules, encapsulants, frontsheet, hail resistance