Menú del día – Sustainable polymer encapsulants for photovoltaics
Dr Joseph Cameron
Pillar 1 - Low-impact materials, manufacturing and designs
Dr Joseph Cameron, a REACT researcher in Pillar 1 - the group of Prof. Jeff Kettle, visited IDONIAL in Avilés, Spain in June to apply new polymer formulations developed at the University of Glasgow for large-scale trials of encapsulating photovoltaic cells.
IDONIAL is a R&D&I technology centre which provides services to private and public organisations in areas such as surfaces and coatings, steel and alloys, and additive manufacturing. It has world-class facilities and expertise for photovoltaic module fabrication.
Joseph was hosted by Dr Ana Martinez Diez, and Dr Pascal Sanchez.
The main purpose of the visit was to explore how the new polymer formulation could applied using a solar panel laminator at IDONIAL, a valuable piece of equipment which ensures the solar cell is well sealed without air or bubbles.
Joseph demonstrated how to prepare formulations of the new polymer so that further optimisation studies can be carried out after the visit. The initial trials showed that the new material has excellent transparency and could be applied successfully using the specialist equipment, making it a promising solution for solar cell module manufacture.
Optimisation of the module manufacture is currently ongoing, with future experiments to be carried out to determine the reliability of the encapsulant in accelerated lifetime tests, as well as ease of recycling compared to the industry standard ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA).
EVA is a thermoplastic widely used for silicon photovoltaic module encapsulation. However,
it is derived from fossil fuels is a barrier for efficient recycling for end-of-life solar cells. Not only does it make it difficult to separate the glass from the PV module, but it prevents easy recovery of silver, which makes up more than half of the material value in waste solar cells, despite making up only a fraction of the mass.
Current recycling routes for photovoltaics rely on crushing the panels, resulting in mixed waste which requires a series of different steps to isolate the different
materials of interest. This multi-step nature of these processes
impacts the viability of recycling at a commercial scale.
Current recycling routes for photovoltaics rely on crushing the panels, resulting in mixed
waste which requires a series of different steps to isolate the different materials of interest. This multi-step nature of these processes impacts the viability of recycling at a commercial scale.
REACT’s solution is to use polymers which are (i) made using natural materials and (ii) designed to be easily recycled at the end-of-life. This could help reduce the carbon footprint of manufacturing solar panels, as well as the environmental burden from mining materials such as silver and silicon, by facilitating a simpler route towards circular photovoltaics manufacture.
We look forward to sharing the outcome of this promising collaboration in the coming months and we thank Ana and Pascal for hosting Joseph’s visit.
If you are looking for sustainable polymer solutions for electronics and beyond, explore how REACT could help by visiting our website https://www.react.ac.uk or by contacting Dr Joseph Cameron at joseph.cameron@glasgow.ac.uk.
