A 2.3 MW rooftop PV plant has been inaugurated at a Belgian facility owned by Sabic, a Saudi Arabia-based chemicals company.
It was designed, financed and installed by Sun4Busines, the Belgian subsidiary of French multinational utility company Engie. The plant features 4,600 PV panels made by Solarge, a Dutch module manufacturer that opened its first plant in the Netherlands last year.
“Sabic sees the use of lightweight solar panels on industrial roofs as an excellent solution for companies that want renewable energy but where their industrial roofs are not strong enough to carry the load of the heavier glass-based solar panels,” Erik van de Grampel, leader Sabic business development, told pv magazine.
The panels cover an area of 13,600 m2, weighing in at 7 kg/m2. They are lightweight due to the use of polymer materials instead of conventional solar glass components. The polymer material does not contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and it was developed in a collaboration between Solarge and Sabic.
The panels are designed for recycling, with separable laminate layers, “so all components can be disassembled and reused,” according to the manufacturer.
“Solarge's ambition is to accelerate the energy transition worldwide with sustainable, PFAS-free solar panels that are also recyclable at the end of their useful life,” Jan Vesseur, Solarge CEO, said in a statement, adding that the company is expanding capacity in the Netherlands and the United States to focus on the C&I market, specifically weight-restricted roofs.
Engie Belgium's R&D centre, Laborelec, had identified the lightweight, circular solar panels as “best in class” particularly for roofs with limited load-bearing capacity, typically found on large factory buildings, according to Vincent Verbeke, CEO of Engie Belgium in a statement.
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