News Article
Plastic PV mounting system beats the time test
In a test report drawn up by the renowned Kunststoff-Institut Luedenscheid, it was found that despite 15 years of use and exposure to sunlight, there were no brittleness or changes to the plastic's mechanical properties of the ConSole mounting system designed by manufacturer Renusol.
"This is a fantastic result! We take the quality testing of our products extremely seriously, which is why we chose to put a ConSole system that has already been in use for many years to the test. We are the first mounting systems manufacturer to put itself through such a quality check," explains Daniel Theophil, Product Manager at Renusol GmbH, which is headquartered in Cologne and represented across Europe and the USA."
A ConSole was obtained that had been in continuous use for 15 years. It was made from the same material high-density polyethylene (HDPE) that the current products are manufactured from. Twenty samples were cut out of the ConSole. Half of the samples had been exposed to direct sunlight and the other half had been shaded underneath the modules. The samples were subjected to tests to measure their tensile strength and melt flow rate. No significant differences between the samples that had been exposed to sunlight and those that had remained unexposed were detected, and both sets of samples were found to have a high level of durability.
The ConSole system mounts solar modules on flat roofs. Instead of being anchored to the roof, ballast in the form of gravel or flagstones is used to keep the modules in place. This prevents the roof membrane or other subsurfaces from being damaged, and results in simple planning processes and extremely short mounting times. Furthermore, the plastic's low weight and stackable structure save on storage and transport costs. ConSole can also be used to construct solar plants on redeveloped brownfield sites, while the aerodynamic ConSole+ system is suitable for roofs with low load capacities.
Since being introduced to the market in 1997, ConSole, which was Renusol's first ever mounting system, has proven highly successful and has sold around 2.5 million units to date. The company develops, manufactures and sells modular systems for the installation of both ground-mounted solar systems and systems for roofs of any kind. In addition to all of Renusol's mounting systems being certified by TÜV Rheinland, many of the company's mounting solutions have either already received technical approval or are on the verge of receiving approval from the Deutsche Institut fuer Bautechnik (German Center of Competence in Civil Engineering "“ DIBt).
The HDPE test report can be viewed at: www.renusol.com/en/unternehmen/news.html
