2192 Bering Drive, San Jose, CA 95131 info@enkitech.

com

CleanARC
Anti-Reflective Anti-Soiling Self-Cleaning Coating System

CleanARC
After 150 million kilometers more than 10% of the suns photons never make it the last 3mm to your solar cell. Reflections from the front surface of the cover glass account for 4% of the loss and simple dirt on the surface accounts for the rest. In fact the losses due to soiling can dwarf the reflection losses with some locations reporting 25~50% annual energy losses. And washing is expensive; the NPV of a single annual wash over the 20-year life of a panel is as much as $0.10/W. CleanARC is the first fully integrated Anti-Reflective Anti-Soiling coating for solar modules. The coating is a unique hybrid material that combines a porous-silica single layer AR coating similar to those that have long been used in the solar industry with a robust hydrophobic non-stick property that provides both anti-soiling and self-cleaning abilities. In dry dusty conditions with no rain or cleaning, CleanARC coated panels will experience about 50% lower energy losses due to soiling. Additionally, if it does rain, the CleanARC panels will self-clean very effectively, returning to almost factory fresh without human intervention. The CleanARC coating is applied in a low cost single step process and is cured at low temperatures of less than 150C so it can be applied by the module manufacturer to already tempered glass, to finished module laminates or to completed thin-film modules without damaging the module.

Reliability
CleanARC passes all standard solar industry reliability test standards, including abrasion testing to EN1096.2 and IEC damp heat, temperature cycle and humidity freeze tests. It strongly resists UV degradation and has excellent chemical resistance to acid rain, salt spray, strong acids and bases as well as common washing detergents and techniques.

Test Abrasion Resistance Damp Heat Temperature Cycle Humidity Freeze UV Exposure Corrosive Atmosphere Salt Spray

Conditions 406g, 14mm Felt Pad 85C/85% RH -40C to +85C -40C to +85C, 85% RH New River, Arizona: EMMAQUA Day spray w ith night time w etting 1 vol% of SO2 5% NaCl in H2O pH 6.5-7.2 at 35C 1M HCl

Duration 1000 Strokes 1000 Hrs 200 Cycles 10 Cycles 13,092 MJ/m (Total) 279 MJ/m (295-385 nm) 1200 Hrs 200 Hrs

Spec# EN1096.2 IEC61215 IEC61646 IEC61215 IEC61646 IEC61215 IEC61646 ASTM G90 DIN50018 UL1332 DIN50021 UL50

Result Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass

Chemical Resistance (Acid)

1M H2SO4 1M HNO3 1M NH4OH 0.67% aq. (.1675M) NaOH 100C Wet glass + toner Common Detergents Windex

30 min 30 min 50 min 10 min 5 pass w ith squeegee w ash w ith w ater. 1000 brush strokes

Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass Pass

Chemical Resistance (Base) Boiling Water Industrial Contaminants Cleaning Tests

3.5

Advanced: SWPhG.35-1 2.8%, SWPhG.4-.8 3.0%

3.0

Transmission
There are many techniques for making AR coatings, but in the solar industry most coatings are single layer porous silica to meet the stringent reliability and cost constraints. These coatings achieve about a 2% to 2.5% increase in peak power. Enkis CleanARC coating has market leading anti-reflective gain. The chart to the left shows just the optical gain and we calculate just the percentage increase in solar photons through the glass to give you the truest idea of the expected increase in module current. The CleanARc coating can achieve up to a 2.8% solar weighted photon gain over 350~1000nm and a 3% gain over the more restricted range of 400~800nm.
ASTM 173 Solar Spectrum

2.5

Transmission Gain %

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750

800

850

900

950

1000

Anti-Soiling & Self-Cleaning

CleanARC is optimized for high insolation environments that are excellent locations for solar arrays. The abundant sunlight tends to make these locations arid and dusty which exacerbates soiling losses. To combat this, CleanARC is both anti-soiling and self-cleaning Anti-soiling refers to the property of passively resisting dirt. The coating is a non-stick surface. Wind born dirt may fall onto the surface, but it doesnt stick and so is more easily removed by wind. Hot arid regions may have a shortage of rain but they rarely have a shortage of wind. Even in the desert, it rains sometimes. But, rain alone will not completely clean a surface. It leaves behind layer of dirt that can only be removed by physically scrubbing the surface. Left alone this layer of dirt provides the anchor layer for new soiling to quickly accumulate. CleanARCs hydrophobic (water hating) property makes the glass self-cleaning. That is, dirt doesnt stick strongly to the glass, neither does water. But dirt loves water, so as the hydrophobic surface sheds water the dirt is efficiently stripped from the glass. The glass will be returned to almost factory fresh condition.
5 0 -5

Coated Uncoated

Solar Photon Flux (%)

-10
-15

-20
-25

-30
-35

Soiling in the outdoor environment is a complex phenomenon. Simply sprinkling dust on glass does not reflect what really happens. Enki has extensively tested protocols for simulating realworld soiling and then used these to characterize the anti-soiling & self-cleaning properties of CleanARC. Soiling is simulated by first condensing water onto cool glass to mimic the formation of early morning dew, then very fine dust is deposited onto the wet surface to mimic the worst case early morning dust storm. The wet and dirty glass is then dried under a heat lamp to simulate the hot midday sun baking the dirt on. This hard baked dirt is then subjected to simulated wind to blow away anything that isnt stuck to the glass. The glass is then tested for transmission to determine the impact of the soiling. This cycle is repeated several times to build up successive layers of dirt after which the sample is subjected to simulated rain under a shower head. Our extensive testing shows that CleanARC will reduce soiling energy losses by 50% and can on average halve the cleaning frequency. This can dramatically reduce O&M costs and water usage.

-40
T0 1 2 3 4 R 5 6 7 8 R 9 10 11 12 R 13 14 15 16 R 17 18 19 20 Simulated Soiling or Rain Cycle

Total Coating Solution

The CleanARC total solution includes a low cost high through-put coating tool. There is no equipment engineering or process development needed to start using CleanARC. Simply provide clean glass, laminates or unframed modules to the tool and coated cured product is output. The tool has 2 minimal facilities footprint, just 40m of space, electric power and water. There is zero liquid or solid waste. All emissions are fully mitigated and the tool has been permitted to operate in California. The standard tool for silicon modules is designed for up to 2x1m substrates, 60 units per hour for an annual capacity of approximately 140MW. For the first time module manufacturers have the option to coat their own glass rather than buy expensive AR glass from glass suppliers. This new capability has several manufacturing advantages. There is no need to carry inventory of both AR coated and non-coated glass. By separating the complex AR coating from the underlying glass you can easily qualify more glass vendors to drive cost reductions. By having control of the coating you can make sure that every module is cosmetically identical rather than dealing with different appearances from different AR suppliers. You also have the option to coat finished laminates and avoid damage to the coating during the manufacturing process. Lastly, for super-substrate thin-film manufacturers, finally a low temperature AR process that doesnt require tempered glass.