Drone aerial photograph of Sunflare solar panel installation on the McBride family farm horse barn.
This barn is on Hopeful Hollow Farm in Rockingham County, VA is 100 years old. So is the roof, but now it can generate 9-kW of new power every day. Sunflare installed LiteMount, the only ultralight weight module that can be installed on weight-constrained roofs — installing at less than 1 lb per square foot. Plus, it seamlessly integrates with every existing metal roof attachment system.
How light is one pound per square foot? It is approximately ¼ of most silicon framed modules. These panels also have shade protection—every cell has a bypass diode. That means shading doesn’t affect Sunflare as much as most silicon panels that have a bypass diode for every string. It would take full shade to shut down a Sunflare panel, whereas silicon panels can be shut down if shade falls across the top of the strings–essentially just 6 cells.
LiteMount is a lightweight, low-profile and rugged panel that is ready to do the heavy lifting in the weight-constrained market. It has a 25-year warranty for product workmanship and power production. It is certified by UL, IEC certified and is Class A fire rated.
“Our mission is to reduce CO2, so it’s imperative to find innovative ways to go where traditional solar can’t,” said Sunflare’s CEO Philip Gao said. “At almost 4 lbs per square foot, silicon is too heavy to be installed on many metal roofs. So those surfaces could be left out of the changing energy landscape. Now, these kinds of roofs can included in producing renewable energy.”
Sunflare is unique. The company has perfected a new, proprietary technology that revolutionizes CIGS solar — producing light, thin, rugged modules that can go places never imagined. Capture4, Sunflare’s rapid cell-by-cell manufacturing process yields efficient, low-cost CIGS technology.
— Solar Builder magazine
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.