High Performance and Durable Anti Reflecting Coatings

Scott V. Thomsen, Pramod K. Sharma, Mark Lewis

For photovoltaic (PV) applications; i.e. in PV-module applications, the power output of the module is dependant upon the amount of light (number of photons) within the solar spectrum that passes through the glass and reaches the PV semiconductor. Therefore, improvements are desired to increase the overall solar transmission of the glass used in PV-modules, including minimizing the reflection of the glass. The solar transmission can be increased by the use of an antireflective (AR) coating on the first surface of the glass. Guardian has developed EcoGuardPattern AR, a new silica based AR coating. The solution of EcoGuard Pattern AR coating is developed by a sol-gel method using nanotechnology. This AR coating solution is robust for large production and can be applied on various types of glass such as float, matte/matte and matte/prismatic using
a fluid coating process. Guardian has built a state of the art line for the production of temperable EcoGuard Pattern AR at our plant in Llodio, Spain. This plant can produce up to 1.1 million square meters annually of EcoGuard Pattern AR coated glass in standard industrial PV module sizes. Guardian EcoGuard Pattern AR coating has high optical performance with as high as 2.5% gain in transmission and 3% power gain. Various environmental testing demonstrates that EcoGuard Pattern AR coatings are highly durable in the field in harsh environmental conditions.

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