Honeywell Launches Third-Generation Film To Protect Solar Panels

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5/16/2012

Honeywell Launches Third-Generation Film To Protect Solar Panels

PowerShield® 3W is more durable than competitive films, allowing solar panels to reliably supply power even in the harshest environments MORRIS TOWNSHIP, N.J., May 16, 2012 – Honeywell (NYSE: HON) announced today that it has introduced its third-generation laminate film designed to protect solar power panels from harsh environments while helping them maintain power output over their 25-year lifespans. The product, PowerShield® 3W, is a cost-effective backsheet for photovoltaic panels that helps protect the electrical circuits in solar panel modules, preventing moisture from entering the module and keeping electrical charges within the module. These features help the module retain maximum power output while maintaining electrical safety. PowerShield 3W is a laminate that is bound by a proprietary adhesive specifically designed for photovoltaic applications. The adhesive helps make the laminate the most durable backsheet available from Honeywell to date. “We are committed to developing solutions that increase the performance and overall lifetime of solar panels. Honeywell’s latest innovative backsheet, PowerShield 3W, provides solar panel manufacturers with cost-effective and reliable protection for their modules,” said Jerry Buchanan, global business manager for Honeywell’s photovoltaic backing systems business. “This backsheet has been proven to perform in some of the most rigorous conditions.” PowerShield 3W is available now, and leading module manufacturers are already including it in module designs. Independent photovoltaic-industry laboratory tests show that PowerShield 3W can withstand more than 3,000 hours of accelerating aging exposure at 85°C (185°F) and 85 percent relative humidity without losing structural integrity. The backsheet’s superior adhesive offers excellent resistance to discoloration due to aging, which helps solar modules retain their appearance and reflectivity. Like all PowerShield backsheets, PowerShield 3W offers high resistance to environmental degradation from sunlight, heat, cold and humidity; strong resistance to acids, bases, solvents, salts and other chemicals; and resistance to excessive moisture infiltration within a module. The technology behind PowerShield 3W is based on Honeywell’s more than 30 years of experience as the world’s leading manufacturer of high-barrier films for food packaging, industrial and healthcare applications, including packaging that protects drugs sold by the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. Honeywell has an active and global research and development program for photovoltaic backsheets, with laboratories in Morris Township, New Jersey, and Shanghai, China. The Honeywell PowerShield supply chain provides module makers with a single point of contact for every component of their backsheet, helping ensure a reliable supply and quality.   Honeywell also offers printable dopants and chemicals for the manufacture of solar cells, the SOLARC™ anti-reflective coating for solar panels, and solar panel installation sales and services. For more information on Honeywell’s PowerShield backing systems, visitwww.honeywellpowershield.com. Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies is a global leader in developing and manufacturing advanced materials and process technologies. These materials and technologies are used by people every day in a wide range of industries and applications, from petroleum refining to environmentally friendlier refrigerants to bullet-resistant vests. Our advanced materials are critical in the manufacture of products ranging from nylon to computer chips to pharmaceutical packaging. Process technologies developed by our UOP business form the foundation for most of the world’s refiners, efficiently producing gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and petrochemicals. UOP is now pioneering technology to produce real fuels from renewable energy sources. Honeywell (www.honeywell.com) is a Fortune 100 diversified technology and manufacturing leader, serving customers worldwide with aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes and industry; turbochargers; and specialty materials. Based in Morris Township, N.J., Honeywell’s shares are traded on the New York, London, and Chicago Stock Exchanges.  For more news and information on Honeywell, please visitwww.honeywellnow.com.

Protecting the Nation's Electric Grid from Cyber Threats

Post from the U.S. Dept. of Energy blog:

Protecting the Nation's Electric Grid from Cyber Threats

January 11, 2012 

  

A smarter, modernized, and expanded grid will be pivotal to the United States’ world leadership in a clean energy future. | Photo courtesy of National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Howard A. Schmidt

White House Cybersecurity Coordinator

What does this project do?

• Creates an electricity infrastructure that saves consumers money through greater energy efficiency, as well as supporting the more reliable delivery of electricity.
• Enables technological innovation that creates jobs of the future and new opportunities for empowering consumers to use energy wisely and reduce their energy bills

Editor's note: This is a cross-post from The White House Blog.


Protecting the electric system from cyber threats and ensuring its resilience are vital to our national security and economic well-being. This is exactly why cybersecurity is one of four key themes in the White House’s Policy Framework for a 21^st Century Grid. For obvious reasons, the private sector shares our interest in a safe and secure electric grid. The Administration has benefited from working closely with industry, including to develop the Roadmap to Achieve Energy Delivery Systems Cybersecurity, released by the Department of Energy last September.

To continue that close cooperation, last week Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Poneman and I, along with senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security, hosted industry leaders to discuss a new initiative to further protect the electric grid from cyber risks. This initiative -- the Electric Sector Cybersecurity Risk Maturity Model Pilot -- is a new White House initiative led by the Department of Energy, in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security, to develop a model to help us identify how secure the electric grid is from cyber threats and to test that model with participating utilities.

Gaining knowledge about strengths and remaining gaps across the grid will better inform investment planning and research and development, and enhance our public-private partnership efforts.

I was encouraged to see an impressive number of electric sector leaders participating and sharing their views with us. Their high level of interest in this new effort reaffirmed for me that these stakeholders share our desire to better understand the strengths and remaining gaps across the sector, so that together we can continue to take concrete steps to protect the electric grid from cyber threats.

We look forward to continued cooperation with our partners in industry to ensure this initiative builds on industry efforts and becomes a meaningful tool to create a modern, secure electric grid that carries us through the 21^st century.