The company said that the film line expansion will be located at the DuPont Circleville, Ohio, facility using existing and retrofitted assets. Tedlar films serve as a component of photovoltaic backsheets, providing durability and performance for photovoltaic modules in all-weather conditions.
According to the company, this expansion provides Tedlar oriented film capacity to support global demand of over 10GW of photovoltaic module production. The investment will deliver DuPont technology to help meet increasing needs for energy and environmental sustainability. Film production is scheduled to start up in September 2011.
David Miller, president of DuPont electronics & communications, said: “The photovoltaic market increasingly demands materials that enable modules to reliably deliver power for decades. This major expansion underscores our commitment to maintaining DuPont leadership in the photovoltaic industry and specifically in the backsheet materials market for solar panels.”
The manufacturing steps for Tedlar oriented film include producing vinyl fluoride (VF) monomer, which is converted into polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) polymer resins, and extruded into the Tedlar film. DuPont plans to increase monomer and polymer resin capacity by more than 50%.
DuPont anticipates that the photovoltaic market will grow rapidly over the next several years, and this growth will drive the demand for Tedlar and other new materials that increase the lifetime and efficiency of solar cells and modules.
