NanoMarkets Releases New Report on BIPV Substrates and Encapsulation Market Opportunities

GLEN ALLEN, Va., May 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Industry analyst firm NanoMarkets announces the release of its latest report on the building-integrated PV (BIPV) market titled, "Substrates and Encapsulation for BIPV."   Within the report NanoMarkets says the total market value for BIPV substrates and encapsulation materials will reach $1.9 billion by 2016.  And while the current market is dominated by glass, NanoMarkets expects novel technologies and materials to account for 20 percent of the BIPV substrate/encapsulation market in 2019.

Additional details about the report are available at: http://nanomarkets.net/market_reports/report/bipv_encapsulation_markets_2012 .  The firm will be releasing a report on the BIPV roofing market during this same month and has recently issued a report on BIPV glass earlier in February of this year.  See http://www.nanomarkets.net/renewable_energy for details of these reports. 

About the Report:

This report provides in-depth market analysis of novel encapsulation materials and substrates for the BIPV sector, examining the implications of both the latest products and fabrication techniques, such as atomic layer deposition (ALD).  The BIPV substrate materials covered include glass, metal foils and plastics. Both glass and flexible encapsulation technologies are included.  This report also contains granular forecasts in both value and volume terms, with breakouts by material PV technology type.  The report also examines the strategies of firms active in the BIPV substrate/encapsulation space.

Findings from the Report:

According to NanoMarkets, the BIPV sector will consume $1.5 billion worth of glass in 2016.  NanoMarkets also foresees important technology changes in this area. The extreme barrier requirements of OPV/DSC for BIPV challenge the barrier properties of glass and NanoMarkets predicts that it will be common for glass substrates to be pre-coated with an ALD barrier to provide the necessary lifetimes required for BIPV panels.  And according to NanoMarkets, the glass firms positioned to take advantage of such opportunities include Nippon Electric Glass, Nippon Sheet Glass, Asahi Glass Company, Corning, Saint-Gobain and Schott.

Non-glass substrates for BIPV will account for more than $250 million in revenues in 2016 reaching almost $950 million by 2019.  Stainless steel and aluminum substrates, in particular are being favored in BIPV for their strength, inertness, thermal budget to withstand absorber deposition conditions, and relatively low cost.  Polymer substrates will also account for a small part of the BIPV market according to NanoMarkets.  Both metal and polymer substrates are increasingly valued for their light weight, which will enable BIPV to break into retrofit markets without any need for special supports to be added to the buildings.

However, flexible BIPV substrates such as metal and plastic also require complex encapsulation stacks.  In NanoMarkets' opinion, the encapsulation of the future will consist of a heavy weathering film on top, a thin barrier layer based on one or two ALD layers, a thick polymer encapsulation layer, the active PV layers, and finally a flexible substrate.  In the recent past, it is proven difficult for firms to come up with a commercially viable multi-layer encapsulation technology, but NanoMarkets now believes such encapsulation solutions will emerge from a select group of firms which include, 3M, Beneq, GE, Cambridge NanoTech, DuPont and Tera-Barrier Films.

About NanoMarkets:

NanoMarkets tracks and analyzes emerging market opportunities in energy, electronics and other markets created by developments in advanced materials. The firm is a recognized leader in industry analysis and forecasts of this kind and has been covering the photovoltaics sector for more than six years.

Visit http://www.nanomarkets.net for a full listing of NanoMarkets' reports and other services.

SOURCE NanoMarkets