Tokyo-based Solar Frontier – the largest manufacturer of CIS (copper indium selenium) thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solar modules – has completed the first installation of its prototype ultralight and bendable CIS thin-film modules. Developed at Solar Frontier's Atsugi Research Center in Japan, the new modules were installed at the Pasir Panjang Terminal Building 3 of PSA Singapore Terminals (which operates the world's largest container transshipment hub).
"Alongside our electrically powered automated Rail Mounted Gantry cranes at our new terminals, these solar modules will also help to reduce PSA's carbon footprint as we continue to promote environmental sustainability," comments Tan Chong Meng, group CEO of PSA International.
"These modules are ultralight, thin and bendable, increasing the ways in which solar energy can be used and opening the way for potential new markets," says Solar Frontier's CEO Atsuhiko Hirano.
Unlike crystalline silicon technologies, the properties of CIS enable it to be used to create ultralight, thin and bendable products, and Solar Frontier has developed a new production process to achieve this, says the firm. Compared to standard modules, the glass substrate layer has been replaced with a bendable and thin metal substrate, the cover glass has been replaced with a high-performance resin film cover, and the frames have been removed. These changes enable a thickness of just 1.5mm, and a weight one-third that of standard modules.
Solar Frontier says that the new features of its prototype modules enable them to be used for a wider range of applications, making solar energy more accessible in the future.
