Solar Power on Vertical Walls Possible with New BIPV

Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., a major Japanese chemical products company, and Mitsubishi Plastics Inc., a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical specializing in producing industrial materials, announced on February 28, 2011, their launch of new BIPV called ALPOLIC®/gioa®, which is a combination of thin-film solar cells and aluminum plastic composite panels known as ALPOLIC®. The companies will begin taking orders from April and start delivery from October. The new building material enables effective photovoltaic generation on vertical walls.

The ALPOLIC®, manufactured by Mitsubishi Plastics, is a three-layered composite panel produced by bonding two sheets of aluminum to either side of a plastic core. It is lightweight and rigid, while offering workability in curves, surface flatness and formability. This material has been delivered to more than 130 countries worldwide with an annual delivery record of 10 million square meters.

The new ALPOLIC®/gioa® is a BIPV produced by laminating ALPOLIC® with amorphous silicon-type thin-film solar cells. This construction material could be used on building walls, as well as on a wide range of external claddings in buildings, allowing similar photovoltaic generation on vertical surfaces as on flat surfaces.

Customers are able to order any size up to a maximum panel size of 1,250 by 3,800 millimeters. Nominal maximum power output is 50 Watts per 800 by 1,600-millimeter panel. Expected power output is 6,000 kilowatt-hours on a 10-kiloWatt installation when calculated for a vertical surface.

Posted: 2011/07/19 06:00:15 Am