DSM is a worldwide scientific research company active in nutrition, health, and materials sectors. The company has just revealed its innovative Anti-Soiling (AS) coating developed for photovoltaic (PV) solar glass. The new material boasts an exceptional combination of anti-reflective and anti-soiling properties, being designed specifically for PV units used in desert-like climates.
DSM's AS coating maximizes performance of solar parks, ever expanding around the world. It helps keeping solar unit output at the top level and improving it even further thanks to reducing soiling losses. Solar equipment in arid climates is exposed to dust and dirt particularly easily, creating a major challenge. Anti-Soiling coating improves the performance of solar panels directly in parallel with maintenance savings, which increases the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of photovoltaic projects.
Same sun. More power.™
Solar energy has naturally become an essential ingredient of the world energy mix recently. And yet, more work is required for making solar a sustainable global alternative to fossil fuels. Before all, this means that the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of solar PV panels must be reduced. The innovative AS coating enables reaching this goal by improving solar unit output in the field. Anti-Soiling builds on the already highly renowned Anti-Reflective coatings by DSM, witnessing a 3 per cent power increase in flash tests.
Jan Grimberg, Global Business Director at DSM Advanced Solar: "In extensive testing at the TÜV SÜD desert test site in Dunhuang in China, we have shown that the new Anti-Soiling coating consistently outperforms our own industry leading Anti-Reflective coating in terms of power — over 1% extra monthly on average. The actual performance at the customer will depend on local conditions, including the type of soiling and climate conditions. We are convinced that by using this coating, the financial performance of PV parks in arid climates, the IRR, can be improved by the combination of higher energy output due to less soiling losses and reduced cleaning costs."
Testing to commercialization
The core of the new AS coating is core-shell sol-gel technology, DSM's proprietary one, providing a high transmission gain. Modified coating composition reduces dust adhesion and improves dust removal considerably. Extensive testing of the new coating by DSM itself, top R&D institutes and solar unit manufacturers in various countries has been performed in lab and outdoor. Currently, DSM is launching the commercial production of the AS; the product is already offered for pilot testing. DSM partners with the top global PV solar glass producer Flat Glass Group from Jiaxing City, Zhejiang, China, for the supply of Anti-Soiling coated PV glass to the manufacturers of solar units.
The General Manager of FGG Solar PV Glass, Edwin Zhao, thus commented on the news: "Over the last 20 years, Flat has become a large-sized glass manufacturer with total assets of more than 4 billion Yuan and integrated R&D, manufacturing and processing facilities for glass. DSM and Flat have been cooperation partners for several years now: we worked closely on a variety of new product and technology development activities. We are extremely proud to bring for the first time to the market solar modules coated with the innovative DSM Anti-Soiling coating, fulfilling an unmet need of our customers, who want to reduce soiling rates and number of cleaning cycles, want easier and faster cleaning with less consumables such as scarce water, and lower residual soiling after cleaning."
