Solar Cables

SOLAR CABLE

Solar cable is the interconnection cable used in photovoltaic power generation. A solar cable interconnects solar panels and other electrical components of a photovoltaic system. Solar cables are designed to be UV resistant and weather resistant. It can be used within a large temperature range and are generally laid outside.

Special Properties of Solar Cables

1. Lifetime reliability: lasts up to 30 years even under tough external conditions.
2. Outdoor durability: resists extreme temperatures (-40°C to 120°C maximum at the core) and ozone resistant.
3. UV resistance: full protection against ultraviolet rays.
4. Halogen-free: Low Smoke Emission & Low Toxicity/Corrosivity during fire.
5. Properties against fire: flame retardant, fire retardant.
6. Flexibility and stripability: for fast and easy installation.
7. Fully recyclable: in accordance with new environmental regulations.
8. Easy installation with color identification (blue, red).
9. Suitable to common connector types.
10. UL, TÜV, UTE and IMQ-certified.

Required Features of Solar cable

Chemical Features

1. Weather resistant
2. Resistant to mineral oils
3. Resistant to acids & alkaline

Thermal Features

1. Maximum conductor temperature of operation-120° C during 20000 hours
2. Minimum operating temperature: - 40° C

TUV Certification

Electrical Features

1. Voltage rating :1.5 (1.8) KV DC / 0.6/1.0 (1.2) KV AC
2. High voltage test: 6.5 KV DC for 5 minutes.
4. Rated Voltage: 0.6/1 kV AC .
5. Rated DC Voltage: 1.5 kV.
6. Maximum Permitted DC Voltage: 1.8 kV (conductor / conductor, non earthed system, circuit not under load).
7. Maximum Permitted AC Voltage: 0.7/1.2 kV .
8. Working Voltage: DC 1000 V.
9. Insulation Resistance: 1000 MW-km.
10. Spark Test: 6000 Vac (8400 Vdc).
11. Voltage Withstand: 6500 V as per EN50395 for 5 min.

Mechanical Features

1. Resistant to Impact , tear & abrasion
2. Minimum bending radius – 4 times of overall diameter.
3. Safe pulling force -50 N/sqmm.

Source:

The solar cable is called the other kind of outdoor cable, which distinguishes itself from the ordinary one. With the rapid development of the photovoltaic power generation industries, the solar panel cable is used more and more intensively. According to statistics, the solar cable used in Europe is as long as 60 thousand kilometers and in North America the length is up to 35 thousand kilometers by the year of 2010.

The solar cable is mainly used in an outdoor environment. Also it can be used to connect the photovoltaic system outside the building to the electric equipments inside. Viewed from the demands of the environmental conditions, the solar panelcable fuses 3 kinds of properties as follows, which shows the particularity of the solar panel cable.

The first one is the requirement of the flame retardancy for the cables. Normally it only makes demands on the house cable. The insulation of the solar cable is made up of the polyolefin which has a feature of flammability. It can effectively block the flame dispersion. At present the standard one used widely is not very strict with the demand of flame resistance, but in the future more stringent test condition will be adopted.

Then the solar cable has good performance on the UV resistance which the outdoor cable should have. Compared to the insulation, the sheath of the cable has more contribution. The insulation and the sheath are structurally independent. Even the sheath crazes the crack will not spread to the insulation. There is UV stabilizer in the sheath which effectively prevents the embrittlement and cracking problems under ultraviolet radiation. Now most of the sheath is black on the market. The solar branch that can provide the sheath of other colors is few because of the special UV stabilizer it needs.

Thirdly the solar cable should reduce the influence of the thermo-oxidative ageing which mainly determines the working life. Both the outdoor and indoor cables suffer from the ageing problem. However, the polyolefin which is the primary material of the insulation and sheath has enough capability to solve the problem. As time goes by, the performance of the solar cable will not change too much.

In addition to these, the working life of the solar panel cable is required to be not less than 25 years even in terrible conditions which the usual cables can hardly meet. It shows how complicated the solar cable is. Through all these stringent requirements of the solar cable, we can see why we call it the other kind of outdoor cable or the amazing cable.

In the future development we will demand a higher level of the solar cable and it will be used more frequently in our daily life.

datasheets
http://nordicindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Solar-Cable-Data-Sheet5.pdf