My adviser and I partnered up with UML’s Plastics Engineering department to work on the new design of a light-weight solar panel. Following are some excerpts of our previously published works:
PV solar energy’s initial investment is affected by shipping, handling, and operating costs. These are directly related to solar panel’s weight, frame structure strength, and speed of installation. This motivates designing a new solar panel structure that has optical, thermal, and lifetime longevity performance comparable to traditional panels while significantly reducing its weight. Additionally, the new panel structure must be compatible with the existing mounting solutions on the market in order to be competitive.
A new solar module design has a reduced weight but with thermal and optical performance no worse than the traditional solar module structure. The reduction of weight was achieved by replacing the top glass layer with acrylic and changing the structure of the frame to provide better stress resilience. The proposed structure is shown below and it addresses industry defined objectives and constraints stated in the following sections.
Optical, thermal, and structural aspects of the design were calculated and modeled. Design choices and justifications are also discussed. Such important issues as retrofittable connection holes, speed of installation, and manufacturability were acknowledged, however not addressed in detail due to available testing equipment limitations. Nonetheless, the proposed structure calculations and modelling indicate a potential for improving a solar module product.
This work was done with the help of the students from the Plastics Engineering Department at UML, S. deCleir and T. Zannoni, under Dr. D. Kazmer’s supervision.
