Featured in Powering AI – 03-2026

What’s in an encapsulant?

A review of PV module encapsulant materials by scientists at Austria’s Polymer Competence Center Leoben (PCCL) found that many products on the market are labeled simply as “polyolefin,” with little analysis of their actual composition. As polyolefin’s market share grows, this lack of transparency could make quality issues harder to spot. pv magazine spoke with PCCL scientist Gernot Oreski about the need for transparency in encapsulant contents.
Mark Hutchins
By
Mark Hutchins
Image: PCCL

In your recent research, you’ve found the PV industry is somehow misunderstanding what a polyolefin is and how it will perform as an encapsulant. What’s going on? In chemistry, a polyolefin is clearly defined as something that consists of carbon and hydrogen atoms connected by single carbon-carbon and carbon-hydrogen bonds with no other functional groups …

pv magazine
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