4th November 2011
We have been testing our new Solar Panel Coatings at our second test site, Philip House in Exeter for a few weeks now. Our high performance coatings are delivering great results thanks to two key benefits:
Anti-wetting (hydrophobicity) - (rain) water forms droplets which roll rapidly off the glass lense
Self-cleaning glass - thanks to the performance coatings hydrophobic effect, the glass lenses are kept clean and so maintain PV efficiency.
Even after just one week, the Solar Panel Coatings' testiing results were really impressive.
>> Read all about the increased energy production we witnessed just one week after applying our nano coatings here!
Week 2 (20/09/2011): 7.5% cumulative increased energy production
The second week was much drier and saw a significant increase in electricity produced: 66kwh on uncoated panels and 69kwh on the PV cells coated with our performance coatings. This is a 4.5% improvement on the week for the nanoShell Solar PV coating over the uncoated panels and returns 7.5% improvement over the two week period.
Week 3 (27/09/2011): 5.8% cumulative increased energy production
Broadly sunny with some light rain, week 3 saw 79kwh produced from the coated panels and 76kwh from the uncoated which is a 3.95% improvement over the uncoated and a cumulative benefit of 5.8% since we began testing our Solar Panel coatings.
Week 4 (04/10/2011): 6.8% cumulative increased energy production
Week 4 was a very sunny week for this time of the year but with some fairly heavy showers on one or two days. We saw the largest production of electricity so far with the coated panels producing 101kwh whilst the uncoated only produced 93kwh. This shows a weekly efficiency gain of 8.6% for the PV cells with our glass coatings and a 6.8% cumulative increase since the start of the trial.
Week 5 (11/10/2011): 5.65% cumulative increased energy production
Following the best week we've experienced, a dry but over-cast week saw both the coated and uncoated panels produce the same amount of electricity, 52kwh, for the first time. There, we have had no increase in benefit from the coated panels over the uncoated but we still have a cumulative gain of 5.65% since the start of the trial.
Week 6 (19/10/2011): 6.39% cumulative increased energy production
Mainly over-cast but with quite heavy showers on the Monday and Tuesday, the nano coatings treated panels produced 65kwh whilst the non-coated panels produced 59kwh. This equated to a weekly efficiency gain of 10.17% and pushels the cumulative gain back up to 6.39% since the start of the trial. Plus, the panels are staying clean.
NEXT: Find out how nanoShell Solar PV performs in Weeks 7 - 11 >>
View the solar panel coating monitoring figures in summary >>
