On May 22nd–23rd, sponsored by the world-renowned chemical enterprise Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC), the high-end in-house PV workshop "Future PV, Win-win Cooperation" was held in Shanghai. The leaders of companies in the PV industry chain of China and representatives of relevant organizations in Saudi Arabia's PV industry were invited to this workshop to discuss the current trends of the industry. As the leader of environmentally friendly fluorine-free backsheets, Crown was invited to attend the workshop, and delivered a keynote report entitled Fluorine-free PV Backsheet Technology and its Development Trend. 

This report elaborates on the history, current status and future trends of environmentally friendly fluorine-free backsheets in four aspects: an analysis of the PV backsheet market and its future trends; a comparison of the properties of different backsheets; an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of fluorine-free backsheets; and an analysis of the application prospects of polyolefin products in backsheet. As explained in this report, fluorine-free backsheets originated in the 1980s and were widely used in certain foreign countries. Their large-scale application in China started in 2018. After several years of market development, this technology has developed rapidly in China. According to the statistics of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA), fluorine-free backsheets will account for 50% of the market share of single-glass backsheets by 2030. 

Fluorine-free backsheets are given such high expectations from the market for three main reasons. First, PET backsheets have a long history of application as PV backsheets, and are supported by a sufficient supply and clear quality control; second, modification significantly enhances their UV resistance and allows them to meet the 25-year service life of PV modules; and third, the incineration and degradation of fluorine-free backsheets will not generate any fluorine-containing toxic substances, so they meet the green recycling requirements, which effectively reduces the recycling cost and is beneficial for the green and sustainable development of the PV industry. The organo-fluorine polymer has stable chemical properties and is essentially non-toxic, but its combustion generates toxic pyrolysis products which are clearly harmful to the human body. Besides, the PET polymer has excellent carbon footprint characteristics and represents the future development trend of backsheets. 

The environmentally friendly fluorine-free BO backsheets of Crown are characterized by ultralow moisture permeability, excellent abrasion resistance, excellent UV resistance, reliable adhesive strength, reliable insulating properties and outstanding ageing resistance, but they were not highly accepted in the market at first. On the one hand, the report notes that the BO backsheets of Crown are weather-proof PET backsheets, the modification of which gives them both weather resistance and insulation. Their inner layer is an independently developed polyolefin film. On the other hand, Crown, as the world's foremost manufacturer of environmentally friendly fluorine-free backsheets, has established strategic cooperation relations with a third-party testing organization, namely the National Center of Supervision and Inspection on Solar Photovoltaic Product Quality (CPVT) in order to demonstrate the reliability of the practical outdoor service of BO backsheets, and continuously tracks product quality through three approaches, namely outdoor demonstration bases, power station visits and long-term outdoor module testing, to ensure that its BO backsheets are trackable and traceable, enhance customer trust and eventually gain recognition and acceptance in the industry.