Solar supply chains and style techniques will certainly require to adjust to next-gen panel styles

• The solar supply chain will certainly need to significantly adapt and change existing solar delivery practices and overhaul utility-scale solar layout versions to fit next generation panels, market stakeholders have said.

New, higher-power solar modules, specifically those that use large-area wafers, are typically either more than 2.2 metres long as well as 1.3 metres broad as well as weigh in extra of 30 kgs, with may can be found in around the 35 kg mark.

These dimensions-- significantly bigger as well as larger than contemporary panels-- will certainly call for changes in the means modules are shipped as well as dispersed, while designers as well as EPCs will certainly need to reconfigure the method utility-scale solar ranches are created and also developed, sector stakeholders have claimed.

The subject is the primary subject for the cover story of Volume 24 of PV Tech Power, PV Tech's detailed quarterly journal dedicated to the downstream solar industry, published next week.

Talking To PV Tech Power, one significant module maker pointed towards potential delivery restrictions caused by increasing module dimensions, with the dimensions common delivery containers made use of in global logistics working as a "functional real-world limit" that could impact on the circulation of next-generation panels.

On the other hand, the combined weight of pallets having brand-new modules was also increased as a concern, especially when it pertained to shipping such panels to building websites on roadway. A typical shipment of some 30 panels per pallet, with each panel considering as much as 40 kilograms, would imply a total pallet weight of approximately 1.2 tonnes. "How do you want to drive these via mud on a building site?" asked Tino Weiss, head of global investing in at German designer BayWa r.e

The weight of brand-new panels could also impact construction practices in well-known solar markets worldwide, especially in those markets where work protections are in area that restrict the amount of weight a single person can bring unaided.

European Union regulation 90/269/EEC, otherwise known as the Manual Handling Directive, safeguards manual workers from the handling of loads also heavy or huge that can cause injury. Precise restrictions vary, yet it is usually excepted that the limit for any kind of a single person to take care of is 25 kilograms.

The introduction of panels weighing considerably above that restriction means strict adherence to secure work methods will call for more workers on construction websites to raise panels right into place, potentially boosting labour costs gradually.