The Acrylic Polymers Business Line of Evonik Industries AG has presented its new product group PLEXIGLAS® Solar at the International Trade Fair for Plastics Processing, FAKUMA 2009 in Friedrichshafen.

There are four reasons in favour of using PLEXIGLAS as a material for solar power generation. It has outstanding optical properties and excellent UV and weather resistance, can be  very precisely processed and shows extremely high impact strength despite its low weight. With the new PLEXIGLAS Solar product group, Evonik offers a complete range of moulding compounds and solid sheets for all demanding applications in the field of lens manufacture for concentrated photovoltaics. The PLEXIGLAS Solar product portfolio is rounded off by the ACRIFIX® Solar adhesives concept. This UV-curable reactive resin system is perfectly adjusted to the PLEXIGLAS Solar products.

The light that impinges on a lens is to be focused onto a small solar cell with maximum efficiency and without losing part of this energy on the way, due to absorption, for example. That makes stringent demands on the material and its optical properties. PLEXIGLAS has a low refractive index, a very high transmittance of more than 92 percent and high transparency. Besides this, PLEXIGLAS always absorbs a very low proportion of radiation both in the visible and the UV range. A further point in its favour is its long service life. This is underlined by CPV systems that have been successfully operated with the trademark PMMA from Evonik for more than 15 years.

The advantage of Fresnel lenses for solar power generation lies in their fine structures. To manufacture these structures with  precision, it takes equally precise moulds and dies in injection moulding and extrusion processes. The microstructures of the lenses can only be precisely replicated using a material with highly accurate mould surface reproduction. PLEXIGLAS meets this requirement. PLEXIGLAS is very robust, much more impact-resistant, yet lighter in weight than glass, and withstands even hard hailstones. PLEXIGLAS has the greatest surface hardness and scratch resistance of all thermoplastics.

For further details please contact:
Evonik Industries AG, Germany
Web: www.evonik.com