Since solar power into a large-scale power plant-level applications, manufacturers in order to further reduce production costs, improve the scale of production, the introduction of the battery chip size is getting bigger and bigger, from the early 125mm * 125mm until 210mm * 210mm or more. Adoption of the battery chip is getting bigger and bigger. The power of the basic power generation unit component of the solar energy system is also from 100W+, solar modules reach 700W+ or more. At the same time, the weight of the module nearly 35Kg, the unit weight has increased to 12.4kg / square meter, and then consider the installation of brackets, etc. 3-6Kg / square meter, the unit weight of 16Kg / square meter or so, which for some of the large-span industrial buildings, including industrial plants are difficult to bear, so that a part of the actual load-bearing limitations of the large-scale roofs so that such solar modules can not be installed and applied. How to reduce the weight of solar modules, so that solar energy can be adapted to more application scenarios has become a bottleneck for the further development of the industry.
How to reduce the weight of the solar panel module package, but also provide flexibility with the shape of the building more flexible installation, module developers are the first to consider the thinning of the glass, as well as optimize the aluminum alloy frame and other directions, but the results are not great. For example, reducing the glass from 3.2mm to 2.0mm reduces the weight per square meter by about 3kg/square meter. Thinning the glass reduces the weight of the module, but at the same time, it reduces the strength of the module. From a design point of view, it may be necessary to reduce the size of the module for the same conditions of use. This is due to the need to ensure that the modules are tested and certified to reliability standards. Therefore, this initiative does not fundamentally solve the pain point. The current large-scale production of large-sized cells that are encapsulated in glass brings with it excessive module weight that is extremely inconvenient when installed on the roof. Moreover, glass modules are fragile during transportation and construction, which poses safety risks. Therefore, glass encapsulated components are mainly suitable for ground power stations and other large-scale applications.
So how to effectively reduce the excessive weight of the module caused by encapsulation, so that it is better adapted to the application of rooftop solar energy, looking for alternative glass as the encapsulation material of the module has been the direction of solar energy people's efforts. With the continuous improvement of the performance of lightweight encapsulation materials appear, so that non-glass encapsulation to realize possible.
In the early years, the lightweight module route is to use fluorine film + fiberglass backing as support to replace the glass encapsulated components. It can solve part of the soft waterproof roof, such as in the TPU construction of the roof, using adhesive installation program. But do support the base plate is still too thick, the weight is still about 8kg / square meter or so.
In recent years, with the development of advanced composite materials and modified polymer materials, has been achieved with the glass package performance is basically the same, can make encapsulation of lightweight modules in the 25-year working life of the module to provide components in line with industry standards of solar energy efficiency output. Non-glass encapsulation can also have the same lifespan as glass encapsulated modules, so it has been developed very quickly.
