XeroCoat, founded in Australia and with headquarters in California, is a company that’s been busy developing a special coating for solar panels to improve their efficiency.
According to Xerocoat, their single-layer optical coating enables superior solar energy transmission over the full solar spectrum and at broad angles to maximize the solar energy available for conversion into electricity. The coating reduces the reflective tendencies of glass covers; particularly when the sun is at low angles in relation to a panel.
The company says solar panels using their anti-reflective coating experience a conversion efficiency increase of as much as 3% at noon and up to 6% at early morning and evening hours.
While on a small scale, this increase may not seem like much, but when it comes to solar farms, the annual output could be substantially increased or fewer panels could be used to achieve the same production.
The coating is an environmentally friendly product – non-toxic, recyclable and the low energy manufacturing requires no vacuum or high temperature processes. XeroCoat’s coating meets IEC 61215 module test standards and exceeds current industry standards for durability, meaning it will last a minimum of 25 years.
The company announced last week that the United States Department of Energy (US DOE) has awarded Xerocoat a grant for US $2.96 million project to develop a method for applying its patented anti-reflective coating technology directly onto assembled solar panels. XeroCoat was one of two dozen companies to share in the $24 million awarded by the US DOE for PV Supply Chain and Cross Cutting Technologies, under its Solar Energy Technologies Program.
While anti-reflective coatings are becoming more widely used for the cover glass of monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar panels, up to this point there has been no viable solution for thin film solar modules. XeroCoat’s anti-reflective coating technology is applied at room temperature and pressure, therefore allowing it to be used on thin film solar modules that have been through the processing and lamination steps, without damage to the thin film coating.
