BioSolar making green tech even greener

BioSolar, a young company dedicated to making products that increase the sustainability of solar energy, recently announced the release of a new back sheet that will decrease solar panel costs and increase their productivity.

The back sheet itself, made from organic plant matter instead of the traditional plastic, was already on the market.

“But we decided to make a change to the color,” said BioSolar CEO David Lee. “And that change is a huge one.”

The new back sheet is a bright white color. Lee said a lot of BioSolar’s customers were asking for the change for cosmetic reasons.

“They like the contrast,” Lee said.

But some research has revealed that the bright white color of the new back sheet reflects a lot of the heat that would otherwise be absorbed by the panel and cause it to get hotter faster. Photovoltaic solar panels operate at lower and lower efficiency levels the hotter they get. By reflecting and rejecting that heat, BioSolar’s new back sheets have led to increased panel productivity, Lee said.

For most of the years BioSolar has been in business, four and a half, it has been producing a clear back sheet that has helped to decrease solar panel costs while also making them more sustainable.

“Traditional solar panels are not as green as people think they are,” Lee said.

The traditional plastic back panels are made from petroleum products and have to go through a special chemical process in order to adhere properly to solar panel components, Lee said.

“And it can be a very a toxic process,” he said. “There are things that will definitely cause problems when you try to dispose of these panels.”

In order to green up the green industry, Lee’s company began looking to organic products and found a way to create a naturally adhesive back sheet.

This latest installment of the back sheet is a natural evolution into an even more sustainable product, Lee said.