Multifunctional coatings for solar module glass

Currently, single-layer antireflection coated (SLARC) solar glass has a dominant market share of 95% compared to glass with other coatings or no coating, for Si PV modules. This antireflection coating (ARC) results in an efficiency gain of 2-3%. However, there are issues with these SLARCs: (1) solar cell warming due to increased sub-bandgap light absorption (by +0.4 similar to 1.2 K), counteracting the cell current gain and accelerating the aging of the solar panels, and (2) poor durability due to the coating's porous structure (typically lasting <= 5 years). This paper aims to develop a non-porous multilayer coating (MLC) that is more durable and will act as a spectrally selective filter for solar modules. Studies have been conducted on MLCs in terms of optical, microstructure, mechanical, and durability properties compared with commercial single-layer AR coatings. The MLCs showed superior performance in durability and benefit in reducing parasitic heat absorption in the non-usable wavelength range. Also, a techno-economic analysis model based on the multifunctional coating specifically to evaluate economic benefits has been developed.