Presenting at the TaiyangNews Virtual Conference on Solar & Sustainability 2023, Stephen Gong, Senior Product Manager at leading Chinese backsheet supplier Cybrid, batted for non-fluoro content backsheets using recyclable materials saying these contribute to lower carbon footprint. In the event of a fire, fluorinated backsheet can produce toxic fumes too. At the same time, fluorine-free backsheet can be recycled at the end of its lifecycle. However, his focus was on PET based products. Gong said interest is quickly increasing, and products are around 20% cheaper than fluoro-coated products. An overview on recent developments and product in backsheet technology, including from Cybrid, is available in the TaiyangNews Solar Backsheets & Encapsulants Market Survey 2022/23, which is available for free download here.

The TaiyangNews Virtual Conference on Solar & Sustainability 2023, which took place on 30 March 2023, looked at solar & sustainability from different angles – corporate decarbonization strategies, low carbon vertically integrated module manufacturing and CO2 certification, to sustainable product sourcing, module recycling, and repowering of PV plants.