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| SABIC Innovative Plastics Advances Solar Panel Technology  As part of SABIC Innovative Plastics' accelerating investments in new application and market development, the company announced the creation of a new Energy Center of Excellence at the company's European headquarters in Bergen op Zoom, The Netherlands. The new facility, 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."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, 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." Technology highlights of the Energy Center of Excellence include: • 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 injection molding machine. 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. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Construction News :: home page |