SABIC Innovative Plastics Advances in Solar Panel Technology Center

The new Energy Center of Excellence from SABIC Innovative Plastics is aimed at providing affordable solutions in solar panel technology with advancements in plastics.

By accelerating their investments in new applications and market development, SABIC Innovative Plastics, a global supplier of plastics resins widely used in automotive, healthcare, consumer electronics, transportation, performance packaging, building and construction, telecommunications and optical media applications, has created a new center dedicated to affordable solar energy.

The new Energy Center of Excellence facility to be located in Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands, an expansion of SABIC Innovative Plastics’ existing Fluid Engineering Center of Excellence and part of the company’s Global Application Technology (GApT) organization, aims to help customers use lightweight, high performance thermoplastics to replace heavy and increasingly costly copper, aluminum, steel, and glass in thermal and photovoltaic solar panels. The center is equipped with leading edge design, plastics molding, and plastics testing equipment, and is staffed by engineers, materials scientists, and application development experts, to help customers utilize the latest in advanced thermoplastic technologies for the mass production of solar panels. SABIC Innovative Plastics’ goal is to be a major contributor in making solar energy for heating and electricity a practical and continuously more affordable option.

“Our goal is to drive growth in the solar energy industry,” said Frank Heessels, leader of SABIC Innovative Plastics’ Fluid Engineering Center of Excellence. “Governing bodies, such as the European Union (EU), are increasingly setting ambitious goals for using solar energy in order to reduce the use of fossil fuels and address growing environmental concerns. SABIC Innovative Plastics’ new energy center will play a key role in this area by helping to develop new, higher performing, lower-cost thermoplastic materials and new systems for our customers. New designs using these materials will be optimized for customers for mass production to help to accelerate the growth of the ‘new energy’ sector.”

The Center of Excellence builds on the experience SABIC Innovative Plastics has gained in developing large automotive parts like fenders and glazing, and on the resources of the Fluid Engineering Center of Excellence. The intent is to utilize SABIC Innovative Plastics high-performance materials – such as the Noryl* Lexan* and Ultem* resin portfolios – in advanced designs and systems to meet demanding performance challenges where other materials find it difficult to compete. These include climate and weathering performance, long-term hot water and overheating resistance, and optical efficiency. Other SABIC Innovative Plastics’ products, such as UV resistant Lexan multi-wall sheet, are also being evaluated.

• A solar simulator to test the performance of complete solar thermal and photovoltaic collectors in different climatic conditions.
• Tools to measure the long-term hydrolytic stability and creep rupture performance, and fluctuating pressure resistance of solar thermal collectors.
• Extrusion of multi-wall sheet, twin-wall sheet vacuum forming and injection molding up to 2,700 tons of clamping force, including a new 1,600-ton rotating platen multi-component plastics injection molding machine.

The center will also draw on the resources of the Fluid Engineering Center of Excellence, which is dedicated to expanding the use of engineering plastics in fluid handling applications, for data on how thermoplastics perform under exposure to hot water.

High-performance materials such as SABIC Innovative Plastics’ Lexan resins offer lighter weight and lower cost than the glass and metal panels that comprise the vast majority of current solar systems – both thermal (hot water) and photovoltaic (electricity). Copper, in particular, has become scarce and expensive. Solarnor of Norway selected Noryl EN150SP and Lexan resins to design the first polymer solar thermal collector panel for domestic heating. The resin provides excellent temperature resistance, hydrolytic stability, cost savings, and an attractive dark, reflective surface.

“GApT is one of SABIC Innovative Plastics’ most powerful tools in creating and delivering the world’s most advanced materials solutions to our customers,” said Rick Pontillo, general manager of Global Application Development, SABIC Innovative Plastics. “The world can no longer rely on our depleting supply of fossil fuels, and global environmental responsibility is an increasingly critical issue. Utilizing our new Energy Center of Excellence to develop newer, cleaner energy sources is a major SABIC Innovative Plastics priority.”

* Trademarks of SABIC Innovative Plastics IP BV, a part of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), one of the 10 largest petrochemicals manufacturers in the world.

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