Energetica India nº91 July August 2020

1 in coatings and is among the highest growing backsheets brands in India. Our Anti-Reflective coatings are considered as industry benchmarks as they enable around 3-4% power gain compared to untreated glass. Due to its vast global demands, we mod- ified the brand portfolio by introducing new features that boost power output for use in specific operations. For in - stance, our Anti-Soiling coating adds an anti-soiling property to the AR function, secondly, our Neutral coating, which is an aesthetic coating for residential solar panels, and lastly, AR coating XT which provides best-in-class transmission for extra power boost (10%) compared to regular coatings designed for high pow- er solar modules. The latest development to our Anti-Reflective coating portfolio, is its use for aftermarket applications (for existing solar parks) that boosts solar output by up to 3% (as compared to un- coated panels). Example: Having semi-arid climatic con- ditions, Andhra Pradesh embraces hot & day weather for most of the year receiv- ing about 500mm avg. rainfall annually. We started to test two types of modules in Andhra Pradesh: Modules with DSM Anti-Soiling coating and modules that have a standard (non-DSM) AR coating. We have been collecting data at string level since September 2018, on the test that is being carried out on a ~1 MW scale within 150-MW park. The result so far is a performance improvement of ~2.5% and a reduction of daily soil- ing rate ~50%, which impacts cleaning costs, reducing consumables such as scarce water and labor costs. E nergetica I ndia : Do these coatings work in every kind of climatic condi - tions, as India has varied climatic con - ditions? Or DSM provides customized solutions as well to customers, as per their requirements? V ivek C haturvedi : Yes, these coatings work extremely well in all types of cli- mates. These are proven durable coat- ings that withstand extreme climates very well. For dry harsh environment we designed a special Anti-Soiling coating that is an anti-reflective AND anti-soiling coating in one. So for solar parks in des- ert-like environments in India we would recommend this type of coating as dis- cussed in Andhra Pradesh case study. This coating is pre-applied at the glass manufacturer. E nergetica I ndia : Does domestic con- tent requirement (DCR) policy im- pact the demand for your recyclable Endurance backsheets? If yes, how much impact? V ivek C haturvedi : India is one of the top 5 PV markets in the world for the last 5 years in terms of new installations. However, it is yet to take off on manu- facturing. Any fair initiative that drives development of local manufacturing in India, helps drive demand for compo- nents and materials required in the entire value chain. A robust foreseeable local demand will drive greater investments in upstream segment and pave the way for India to become “atmanirbhar” across the entire PV ecosystem. E nergetica I ndia : As per your analysis, up to what extent Indian industry is aware/ enthusiastic towards using re- cyclable products? V ivek C haturvedi : Our biggest challenge was about 3 years back, when we were launching our Endurance backsheets, which are fully recyclable and made us- ing sustainable materials. The bid condi- tions blocked our entry into the market. However when we brought this to the no- tice of authorities concerned, their action was swift and this is how we overcame that challenge. We estimated that there will be at least 24 billion PV modules installed on earth by 2050 – enough to stretch to the moon and back. That’s a conservative esti- mate. How on earth (literally) are we going to dispose of today’s PV modules safely and responsibly once they reach their end of life? What will the financial, environmental and societal cost be? You could call it the solar industry’s own ‘in- convenient truth’. Now, the solar market is gradually becoming aware of the fact that we have a shared responsibility to make solar even cleaner and modules truly recyclable, also in India fortunate- ly. The bill of materials chosen today, will have an impact on modules’ end-of-life over 20-30 years. So, let’s choose sus- tainable and recyclable materials. E nergetica I ndia : What are your views about the circular economy, in terms of the solar industry? Are we prepared for the same? V ivek C haturvedi : To enable further growth in PV deployment, we need to keep driv- ing down the levelized cost of energy (LCoE) by improving durability, energy yield performance and – absolutely cru- cially – tackling the issue of the industry’s waste streams by enabling materials to be looped back into the supply chain as low-cost feedstocks. Take for example backsheets: In our opinion, the traditional multi-lay- ered laminated or PET core-layer based backsheet has – by and large – reached its limits in terms of improvement po- tential. Further cost reductions are not possible without breaching the minimum performance limits and the lack of control energetica INDIA- July-Aug_2020 19 INTERVIEW