Design of Light-Weight Solar Panels

We present a new solar panel design with a focus on weight reduction. The optical and thermal performances are comparable to the conventional solar panels. A 20% weight reduction was achieved through the replacement of the front glass cover with a hard-coated acrylic and using a thermal conductive plastic backing for structural rigidity. Thermal and wind load modelings were conducted in ANSYS and SolidWorks. The modelings show that the proposed structure is 1 centigrade cooler and fraction of a percent better optically than traditional designs, while having significantly less mass. Weight considerations are important because they affect many auxiliary costs as shipping/handling and installation, as well as recurring costs such as reduced stress on the tracking systems.