Major materials science company, Royal DSM has sold its Resins & Functional Materials (RFM) businesses including the coatings activities of DSM Advanced Solar, known for its anti-reflective (AR) resin coatings for solar glass and on-field PV power plant upgrading, to rival Covestro AG for a cash sum of around €1.4 billion.
DSM Advanced Solar and Independent Power Producer (IPP) SolarKapital have achieved a 4% energy gain at a 500kWp PV power plant in Türkenfeld, Bavaria, Germany by deploying DSM’s retrofit Anti-Reflective (AR) coating technology on First Solar’s CdTe panels.
The ‘Retrofit AR’ coating, an offspring of DSM’s industry-leading anti-reflective (AR) coatings, gives older, uncoated solar modules an instant energy boost of up to 3%, according to lab and field tests. For power plants built before 2012, it is an especially attractive way to increase yield while keeping feed-in tariffs high and boosting internal rate of return (IRR), compared to panel replacement programs.
Pellucere Technologies has claimed to have developed the world’s first field-installable, anti-reflective, anti-soiling solar panel coating, which is said to boosts energy generation and reduces cleaning. The MoreSun product includes an Anti-Reflective (AR) & Anti-Soiling (AS) silica shield to any solar array.
