Apollo Power Limited, an Israel-based company, has developed fully flexible rollable PV modules for multiple applications. These modules boast an efficiency of 17% and possess key features such as stability, flexibility, performance, and lightweight construction.
The flexibility of these PV modules allows them to be used on various surfaces that might initially seem unsuitable for solar installations. For instance, they can be utilized on roofs with low roof load, car bodies, or truck roofs, as well as floating PV modules and on sidewalks.
The PV modules provided by Apollo come in rolls with a radius of 15 cm that are more than 6 m in length and 2 m width, when unrolled. With an output of 1.8 kW, these modules are suitable for a wide range of PV projects, simplifying installation and logistics processes. Being rollable, and weighing only 3 kg/m2, these PV modules are easier to handle and transport, as the complexity and costs of installation are reduced. Their stability ensures durability even in challenging conditions, enabling reliable and long-lasting solar energy production.
A particular variant of the solution called SolarPaint, is designed for integrating PV into vehicles. Here, the photovoltaic cells have the ability to be integrated into the fiber-reinforced plastic components of a vehicle's chassis. They are manufactured using methods such as injection molding, thermoplastic manufacturing, or high-pressure resin transfer molding (HP-RTM). Notably, the integration of these solar cells into the chassis occurs without any disruption to the fundamental production processes. Their low weight of 1.8 kg/m2 ensures that they do not impose any disadvantages in terms of weight. An additional advantage lies in the fact that the energy harnessed by these solar cells actively decreases the overall energy consumption of the vehicle.
The text is an excerpt from TaiyangNews New Solar Products Overview H1/2023, which can be downloaded for free here.