In the course of a recently concluded framework partnership with film specialist Isovoltaic (Lebring / Austria; www.isovoltaic.com), Borealis (Vienna / Austria; www.borealisgroup.com) will deliver next generation PP materials and thus "moves upwards in the value chain”, as vice president of Marketing & New Business Development Maria Ciliberti put it.

With its brand “Icosolar”, Isovoltaic is renowned as a world market and technology leader in the development and production of backing films for photovoltaic modules. The company has 150 employees at four locations in Lebring / Austria and Hong Kong, Changzhou and Suzhou / China.

The company’s latest development is Icosolar "CPO 3G”, a film made of co-extruded polypropylene grades “Quentys SF700CL” and “SF900WL” as core and outer layers. Quentys is Borealis’ new umbrella brand for solar applications, set to sell “more reliable, more durable and more favourable” materials. The main advantage of the new backing films is that they are made of just one plastic material.

The single-stage production process wins over multi-layer laminated films because there is no risk of delamination. Borealis is already pursuing a similar mono material approach for its flexible plastic packaging made of bimodal polyethylene (see Plasteurope.com of 30.11.2016).

In addition to backing films, both partners said they would present more polyolefin solutions for the solar industry in the near future, for example, encapsulation films.