Encapsulant Materials and Their Adoption in Photovoltaic Modules: A Brief Review

In the last two decades, the continuous, ever-growing demand for energy has driven significant development in the production of photovoltaic (PV) modules. A critical issue in the module design process is the adoption of suitable encapsulant materials and technologies for cell embedding. Adopted encapsulants have a significant impact on module efficiency, stability, and reliability. In addition, to ensure the unchanged performance of PV modules in time, the encapsulant materials must be selected properly. The selection of encapsulant materials must maintain a good balance between the encapsulant performance in time and costs, related to materials production and technologies for cells embedding. However, the encapsulants must ensure excellent isolation of active photovoltaic elements from the environment, preserving the PV cells against humidity, oxygen, and accidental damage that may compromise the PV module's function. This review provides an overview of different encapsulant materials, their main advantages and disadvantages in adoption for PV production, and, in relation to encapsulant technologies used for cell embedding, additives and the interaction of these materials with other PV components.

Automated summary

The growing demand for energy in the past two decades has led to significant development in photovoltaic module production. Selecting appropriate encapsulant materials and technologies for cell embedding is critical in the module design process. The chosen encapsulants have a significant impact on module efficiency, stability, and reliability. The encapsulant materials must be selected properly to ensure the unchanged performance of PV modules over time, while maintaining a balance between performance and production costs.