For the solar energy industry to increase its competitiveness, there is a global drive to lower the cost of solar‐generated electricity. Photovoltaic (PV) module assembly is material‐demanding, and the cover glass constitutes a significant proportion of the cost. Currently, 3‐mm‐thick glass is the predominant cover material for PV modules, accounting for 10%–25% of the total cost. Here, we review the state‐of‐the‐art of cover glasses for PV modules and present our recent results for improvement of the glass. These improvements were demonstrated in terms of mechanical, chemical and optical properties by optimizing the glass composition, including addition of novel dopants, to produce cover glasses that can provide (i) enhanced UV protection of polymeric PV module components, potentially increasing module service lifetimes; (ii) re‐emission of a proportion of the absorbed UV photon energy as visible photons capable of being absorbed by the solar cells, thereby increasing PV module efficiencies and (iii) successful laboratory‐scale demonstration of proof of concept, with increases of 1%–6% in I_sc and 1%–8% in I_pm. Improvements in both chemical and crack resistance of the cover glass were also achieved through modest chemical reformulation, highlighting what may be achievable within existing manufacturing technology constraints.

中文翻译：

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致力于改进用于光伏设备的防护玻璃

为了提高太阳能行业的竞争力，全球范围内都在努力降低太阳能发电的成本。光伏（PV）模块组件的材料要求很高，而盖玻片则占了很大一部分成本。目前，厚度为3毫米的玻璃是光伏组件的主要覆盖材料，占总成本的10％至25％。在这里，我们回顾了用于光伏组件的防护玻璃的最新技术，并介绍了我们最近改进玻璃的结果。通过优化玻璃成分（包括添加新型掺杂剂）以生产可提供以下功能的保护玻璃，从而在机械，化学和光学性能方面证明了这些改进：（i）增强了聚合物PV组件的紫外线防护，潜在地延长了组件使用寿命；I _sc和I _pm的1％–8％。还可以通过适度的化学配方来改善防护玻璃的耐化学性和抗裂性，这突出了在现有制造技术约束下可以实现的目标。