Centre targets solar panel research

A Sabic Innovative Plastics product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Oct 25, 2007

Sabic Innovative Plastics' centre of excellence helps customers use the latest in advanced thermoplastic technologies for the mass production of solar panels.

Sabic Innovative Plastics has created a new Energy Centre of Excellence at the company's European headquarters in Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands.

The new facility aims to help customers use lightweight, high-performance thermoplastics to replace heavy and increasingly costly copper, aluminium, steel and glass in thermal and photovoltaic solar panels.

The centre is equipped with leading edge design, moulding and testing equipment and is staffed by engineers, materials scientists and application development experts, to help customers use the latest in advanced thermoplastic technologies for the mass production of solar panels.

Sabic Innovative Plastics' goal is to be a major contributor to making solar energy for heating and electricity a practical and affordable option.

"Our goal is to drive growth in the solar energy industry", said Frank Heessels, leader of Sabic Innovative Plastics' Fluid Engineering Centre of Excellence.

"Governing bodies, such as the European Union (EU), are increasingly setting ambitious goals for using solar energy in order to reduce the use of fossil fuels and address growing environmental concerns".

"Sabic Innovative Plastics' new energy centre will play a key role in this area by helping to develop new, higher performing, lower-cost thermoplastic materials and new systems for our customers".

"New designs using these materials will be optimised for customers for mass production to help to accelerate the growth of the 'new energy' sector".

The centre builds on the experience Sabic Innovative Plastics has gained in developing large automotive parts like fenders and glazing and on the resources of the Fluid Engineering Centre of Excellence.

The intent is to use Sabic Innovative Plastics' high-performance materials - such as the Noryl Lexan and Ultem resin portfolios - in advanced designs and systems to meet demanding performance challenges where other materials find it difficult to compete.

These include climate and weathering performance, long-term hot water and overheating resistance and optical efficiency.

Other Sabic Innovative Plastics' products, such as UV-resistant Lexan multi-wall sheet, are also being evaluated.

Technology highlights include a solar simulator to test the performance of complete solar thermal and photovoltaic collectors in different climatic conditions.

The centre also has tools to measure the long-term hydrolytic stability and creep rupture performance and fluctuating pressure resistance of solar thermal collectors.

It is capable of the extrusion of multi-wall sheet, twin-wall sheet vacuum forming and injection moulding up to 2700 tons of clamping force, including a new 1600-ton rotating platen multi-component injection moulding machine.

The centre will also draw on the resources of the Fluid Engineering Centre of Excellence, which is dedicated to expanding the use of engineering plastics in fluid handling applications, for data on how thermoplastics perform under exposure to hot water.

High-performance materials such as Sabic Innovative Plastics' Lexan resins offer lighter weight and lower cost than the glass and metal panels that comprise the vast majority of current solar systems - both thermal (hot water) and photovoltaic (electricity).

Copper, in particular, has become scarce and expensive.

Solarnor of Norway selected Noryl EN150SP and Lexan resins to design the first polymer solar thermal collector panel for domestic heating.

The resin provides excellent temperature resistance, hydrolytic stability, cost savings and an attractive dark, reflective surface".