Photovoltaic module
AssigneeE. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
InventorAngelique Genevieve Lucie Garreau-Iles
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A photovoltaic module comprising, in this order, a front sheet, a front encapsulant layer having a total area (B) consisting of one or more in-plane elements, one or more photoactive cells, a back encapsulant layer having an area (A), and a back sheet, wherein the front encapsulant layer having the total area (B) covers the area defined by the one or more photovoltaic cells and wherein the total area (B) of the front encapsulant layer is smaller than the area (A) of the back encapsulant layer, and wherein the contours of the one or more in-plane elements of the front encapsulant layer and the contour of the back encapsulant layer do not intersect.
Claims18
A photovoltaic module comprising, in this order:
- i. a front sheet;
- ii. a front encapsulant layer having a total area (B), consisting of one or more in-plane elements, each of said one or more in plane elements of said front encapsulant layer having a contour;
- iii. one or more photoactive cells;
- iv. a back encapsulant layer having an area (A), said back encapsulant layer having a contour;
- and
- v. a back sheet;
- wherein the front encapsulant layer having the total area (B) covers the area defined by the one or more photovoltaic cells and wherein the total area (B) of the front encapsulant layer is smaller than the area (A) of the back encapsulant layer, and wherein the contours of the one or more in-plane elements of the front encapsulant layer and the contour of the back encapsulant layer do not intersect.
A process for the manufacture of a photovoltaic module comprising the steps of:
- (a) assembling a stack by
- i. placing at least one sheet of a back encapsulant having an area (A) on top of a back sheet to form a back encapsulant layer thereon, said back encapsulant layer having a contour,
- ii. placing one or more photoactive cells on top of the at least one sheet of the back encapsulant,
- iii. placing one or more sheets of a front encapsulant consisting of one or more in-plane elements on top of the one or more photoactive cells to form thereon a front encapsulant layer having a total area (B), each of said one or more sheets of front encapsulant of said front encapsulant layer having a contour,
- iv. placing a front sheet on top of the one or more front encapsulant sheets;
- and
- (b) consolidating the so assembled stack in a laminating device by
- i. heating the stack to a temperature of 100 to 180° C.,
- ii. subjecting the heated stack to a mechanical pressure in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the stack by forming a vacuum in the laminating device,
- iii. cooling the stack to ambient temperature, and
- iv. releasing the mechanical pressure by reestablishing atmospheric pressure in the laminating device;
- wherein the front encapsulant layer having the total area (B) covers the area defined by the one or more photovoltaic cells, and wherein the total area (B) of the front encapsulant layer is smaller than the area (A) of the back encapsulant layer, and wherein the contours of the one or more front encapsulant sheet of the front encapsulant layer and the contour of the back encapsulant layer do not intersect.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.