Technical feasibility study on polycarbonate solar panels

This paper describes a technical feasibility study on the application of polycarbonate (PC) plates in a superstrate photovoltaic module design. The lamination process was performed in a conventional laminator apparatus using low temperature curing (100°C) ethylene-vinyl-acetate (EVA) as the potting material and multi-crystalline silicon solar cells. Thermo-mechanical calculations via the finite element method were performed to support the experimental results on various layer set-ups. Both experimental and numerical results revealed that PC superstrate laminates display a certain degree of warpage after the lamination process. This warpage can be attributed to stress built up in the modules due to differences in thermal expansion between solar cells and PC. This stress build-up can be diminished by application of thicker layers of PC or EVA leading to less curved laminates.