Omexom Belgium is involved in the construction of a pioneering solar installation featuring ultra-lightweight, completely recyclable photovoltaic panels. This innovative product can be installed on any roof type and is also part of a circular economy.
“Since 1965, 1,000 GW of solar panels have been installed worldwide,” says Huib van den Heuvel, Chief Commercial Officer at Solarge. “But we are now seeing an additional 200 GW installed every year. This will likely rise to 1,000 GW a year by 2040 onward.”
This Dutch solar panel manufacturer is hoping to take full advantage of strong growth in the market and steal a march on its predominantly Chinese competitors. Solarge, which was formed in 2018 and opened its factory in Weert in the southeastern Netherlands in May 2023, produces next-generation solar panels. “Our product is totally innovative,” says Huib van den Heuvel. “It’s 50% lighter than conventional modules and emits 80% less carbon during its production.”
Weight issues
Reducing the mass of a solar panel is no trivial matter given that, in the Netherlands for example, 80% to 90% of commercial or industrial building rooftops (Solarge’s main targets) are not equipped with solar panels, and 40% of these cannot support the weight of conventional glass panels. And these figures are similar in most other countries.
Solarge solar panels weigh 5.5 kg per square metre compared with the standard 11 kg or more, thanks to their use of fibre-reinforced polypropylene, a semi-crystalline thermoplastic polymer specially developed by the petrochemical group Sabic (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation).
“We developed an entirely new, custom-built structure for installing the solar panels on the roof”
This collaboration between the two companies came about due to Sabic’s plan to equip its site in Genk, Belgium, with a pioneering new solar installation, with 4,600 panels providing total capacity of 2.3 MWp. This is a first using this new type of solar panels on such a scale, and 97% of the installation’s 2 GWh annual production will be self-consumed on site.
Unbreakable and recyclable
This innovative installation, which should be operational by the end of 2024, will use the latest Solarge panels, which are ultra-lightweight and also 100% recyclable.
“All the materials that make up our solar panels, which contain no PFASs, are easy to disassemble, reusable and recyclable, with guaranteed value in a circular economy approach,” says Huib van den Heuvel. He adds that the supply chain is considerably simplified due to the absence of glass and aluminium.
Another significant advantage is that their polymer components make this type of panel unbreakable and highly resistant to changing climatic conditions, as well as to salt water. And “Maintenance costs are also reduced thanks to the absence of an aluminium frame.”
Four Omexom engineers
The Genk project also involves other partners, including Omexom Belgium (VINCI Energies) and Engie. Stijn Van Dessel, Project Manager at Omexom Belgium, which has assigned four engineers to the project, explains how “For installing solar panels on the roof, we developed an entirely new custom-built structure in collaboration with Solarge and Avasco [a manufacturer of rooftop mounting frames].”
One of the main challenges was to find a solution for installing the electric cables where the space between the panels and the roof is a lot smaller than in a conventional installation.”
Through its collaboration with Omexom, Solarge hopes to tap into a powerful, international network to accelerate the marketing of its new product. The firm is already working on numerous smaller projects, but is targeting much larger contracts such as the one in Genk.
11/14/2024
