AESOLAR: Vertical PV and Carports
Hamed Hanifi, AESOLAR’s Director of Technology and Innovation, presented highlighted carport and vertical PV as 2 of the most promising markets in solar today. He emphasized that these land-saving applications offer strong economics for investors and open doors for mass producers, but each setup benefits from slight optimization to fit the scenario.
For vertical PV, agriPV is the biggest market. AESOLAR caters to this segment with its TERRA module. Featuring a power output of 560 W to 580 W and 40% transparency, these panels are ‘perfect’ for agriPV solutions, he added.
Apart from agriPV, vertical PV installations also offer scope for use in fences, schools, hospitals, and noise barriers. Apart from agriPV, vertical PV installations also offer scope for use in fences, schools, hospitals, and noise barriers. Offering a price comparison between retailed price of a normal plastic fence and vertical PV fence, Hanifi said it shows a benefit of up to 40% in costs.
However, vertical modules face the challenge of being shaded by junction boxes and cables, which Hanifi said the company addresses by parking all junction boxes in one place, thereby optimizing the frame. Compared with standard modules, these modules offer an energy gain of over 3.2% in the vertical setting.
For the carport segment, AESOLAR offers its n-type TOPCon Horizon modules, with up to 22.31% efficiency and 8% transparency. Both commercial and residential carports save space and offer a business model for EV charging.
Carports have to deal with safety overhead as the primary challenge. From the module manufacturer’s side, the main contributing factor is that the laminate should not fall apart even if it is broken. In Germany, for instance, the Deutsches Institut für Bautechnik (DIBt) or the German Institute for Building Technology which is the government’s technical authority for the construction industryis supervising this process. Hanifi added that AESOLAR’s Horizon modules are approved by the DIBt, which issues mandatory technical approvals for construction products to ensure building safety in Germany.
