Solar panels with glass replaced by plastic

[admin]

A Dutch firm, Solarge, has come up with an interesting tweak to the solar panels. They have dispensed with the glass and applied a plastic coating to the solar panels, making them significantly lighter than conventional solar panels. While these solar panels will cost a bit more than conventional, the advantage is that these could be installed on roofs that cannot bear the weight of the conventional solar panels.

And the company feels that is a fairly large and uncontested market.

Sounds like an interesting development indeed.

What are your thoughts?

[dharini@e2expo.com]

As it is disposing solar panels is going to be a problem. Plus the cost of solar power atleast in india is down and is below Rs 2/ unit and can come down with increasing efficiency. What is the weight reduction because of plastic is not mentioned and that is critical to such innovations. Seldom have we heard of a roof top becoming unviable because of the solar panels being heavy. What is the difference in weight between solar panels as of now and the ones with glass coating ?