Solutia to Set Up an EVA Solar Facility in China

Solutia is planning to launch a manufacturing facility for ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA) solar encapsulants in China. They would carry out production trials in March and then commercial production soon after in the second quarter.

The EVA plant would be a part of the Suzhou China manufacturing center that produces the Saflex brand of polyvinyl butyral (PVB) films.

The plant would not only reinforce the company’s position as a supplier of superior quality solar encapsulants, but also offer a platform, which would support accelerated growth of solar solutions manufacturers in China. This would be Solutia’s premier EVA Production plant after it has purchased the Etimex Solar, a European PV market supplier of Vistasolar EVA encapsulants.

Solutia’s General Manager and President of Advanced Interlayers Division, Tim Wessel remarked that they would be able to reduce the production costs for module manufacturers and hence improve service levels if they invest in growth markets like China. They also maintain that they were the only manufacturer to produce all the three main module encapsulants i.e. EVA, thermal polyurethane (TPU) and PVB.