This report is part of NanoMarkets’ ongoing coverage of materials and markets in photovoltaics (PV). In this report, NanoMarkets examines the emerging opportunities for selling “smart” coatings into the solar panel industry. In this report we examine the potential for self-cleaning, self-healing, electrochromic and thermochromic coatings in the PV applications over the next eight years.  It includes an assessment of where revenue generation will occur and which companies are likely to be the winners and losers in this space.  The report also includes a detailed eight-year forecast of smart coating usage in the PV space, broken out by coated area and market value. 

 

NanoMarkets has been covering the markets for PV materials for almost seven years and believes strongly that there are now growing opportunities to sell smart coatings into the PV sector. This report considers how smart coatings can create value for the PV industry under the changed circumstances that PV faces today, in which government subsidies are under threat and there are huge pressures to reduce PV costs across the industry. 

 

In this environment, some PV module makers are seeking ways to differentiate themselves in a rapidly commoditizing market, such as through addition of self-cleaning or self-healing coatings to PV panels that improve performance and/or reduce cost-in-use. Others may seek to add new functionality to PV panels, such as by combining BIPV with an electrochromic smart window that enhances the value proposition of PV for end-users. Among firms discussed in this report are, Bayer MaterialScience, Cardinal Glass, Corning, Gentex, Nippon Sheet Glass, Nissan, PPG, Peer, SAGE Electrochromics, Saint-Gobain, and Soladigm.