Chinese industrial polyester yarn and polyester tire cord fabric provider Zhejiang Hailide New Material Co., Ltd. (Halead) has developed a PVC knife-scratch coated fabric that can be used as a reflective material for ground-mounted bifacial PV projects.
“The fabric has a reflectivity of up to 84.54%,” a spokesperson from the company told pv magazine, noting this percentage surpasses by far the 70-75% reflectivity offered by snow, which is the best form of albedo surface. “Reasonable paving of reflective materials on the ground can enhance the light efficiency of the backplane of the module, thereby improving the overall power generation efficiency of the modules.”
Called Sunplus, the reflective fabric has a thickness of 0.4 cm and consists of an anti-ultraviolet (UV) protective coating, a reflection factor coating, a precision coating, a functional framework, and a textile protective layer.
The manufacturer claims that the product can be deployed in different environments, due to its physical strength, bending resistance, and temperature resistance. It mentions deserts, wastelands, rooftops, hay landforms, rolling hills, agricultural land, and even water.
The spokesperson said the solution can ensure a 9.03% gain in annual power generation and an 8.88% increase in power output per W compared to bifacial projects without the fabric, adding that these results were confirmed by Germany's TÜV SÜD.
The certification body also certified that the material can retain 68.55% of its reflectivity after 10,000 h, with the material surface showing no cracks or delamination. “The product has passed many environmental protection regulations such as Europe SVHC / RoHS 2.0 / California 65,” the spokesperson added.
The company already sold its solution for several large scale PV projects in Oman, India, Japan, and China.
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Great to see additional albedo boosting solutions. For PVC film-based solutions it will be helpful to see data on flammability and toxicity from chorine gas emissions when on fire. Plus the chlorine’s effect on solar PV modules etc.. Also how do you keep it ground-flush films clean and avoid triboelectric effects causing dust attraction and water pool and spotting?