Is Flexible BIPV a Market Opportunity for Flexible Glass?

Published: October 31, 2011    Category: Advanced Materials Renewable Energy

The one area of the PV industry where suppliers and (hopefully) customers seem to care about flexibility is BIPV.  Flexible BIPV occupies just a very small share of the overall PV market at the present time, but appears to offer value propositions—and opportunities—that derive from its light weight, ease of installation, and conformability with building fabrics. 

Also, as  with other BIPV products where there is a high level of integration between the PV functionality and the building product functionality, flexible PV provides more controlled aesthetics and the ability to allocate costs between categories of PV power production and architectural materials with considerable discretion.  This latter point is especially important, because, by spreading costs in this way, BIPV could exhibit much better economics than regular PV.  In the current business climate for the PV industry in which subsidies for PV are being challenged, this could be valuable.

Today, flexible BIPV products mainly fall into three categories (1) thin-film laminates applied between the seams to metal roofing panels already in place, (2) shingle products to interlace with conventional shingles on asphalt roofs; and (3) membrane roofing products to lie flat across a wider surface of membrane roof.  Flexible glass is seldom mentioned in the context of flexible BIPV currently:

• At the present time, the main claim for flexibility in BIPV has been conformability to building fabrics and, in addition, it is claimed flexibility allows BIPV modules to withstand the stresses, such as wind, snow loads, and impacts.  Flexible glass may be able to compete in the BIPV sector based on similar factors, but it is hard to imagine that flexible glass could make this kind of thing a “unique selling proposition.”  Competing with light steel would certainly be a challenge in this regard

• Another claim that is made for flexible BIPV is lower weight, which is obviously an important cost (and safety) factor for roofing materials.  Flexible PV generally avoids the heavy glass encapsulation usually associated with conventional PV panels and this therefore clearly represents an opportunity for flexible glass, especially when one considers the fact the specialized flexible encapsulation systems do not seem to have done well in the market.

• Flexible glass can be used to produce market distinguishing BIPV products with improved aesthetics:  products such as curved panels, etc. We note that Mage Sunovation of Germany innovates in the BIPV glass space by using plastic—Evonik's PMMA—instead of glass panes. Using PMMA reduces the weight of the panels significantly and allows the modules to be formed easily into curved shapes—bending the c-Si PV cells along with them—and even to be somewhat flexible.  Something like this product could be easily created using flexible glass and may be more rugged and longer lived than the plastic equivalent.  Long-life in roofing materials – for obvious reasons – commands a premium.

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