US 8,766,086 B2Granted

System and method for laminating photovoltaic structures

AssigneeSolaria Corporation

InventorsAbhay Maheshwari, Raghunandan Chaware

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Abstract

A method for forming a laminated photovoltaic structure includes providing a sheet of transparent material having light concentrating features, disposing adhesive material adjacent to the sheet of transparent material, disposing photovoltaic strips adjacent to the adhesive material, wherein the photovoltaic strips are positioned relative to the sheet of transparent material in response to exitant light characteristics of the light concentrating features, wherein photovoltaic strips are coupled via associated bus bars, wherein gap regions are located between bus bars of neighboring photovoltaic strips, disposing a rigid layer of material adjacent to the photovoltaic strips to form a composite photovoltaic structure; and thereafter laminating the composite photovoltaic structure to fill the gap regions with adhesive material and to form the laminated photovoltaic structure, wherein adhesive material adheres to the bus bars.

Claims10

Dependent claims

A method for forming a photovoltaic module comprising:

providing a sheet of transparent material having a plurality of light concentrating geometric features;
mounting the sheet of transparent material on a profiling device;
subjecting the sheet of transparent material to incident light;
capturing a light profile of the transparent material using a sensing device to determine the light profile for the sheet of transparent material;
storing information associated with the light profile for the sheet of transparent material in a memory of a computing device;
using the light profile from the memory in determining the exitant light characteristics of the plurality of light concentrating geometric features and locating a plurality of correlated positions on the transparent material for placement of a plurality of photovoltaic strips;
disposing a first layer of adhesive material adjacent to the sheet of transparent material;
disposing the plurality of photovoltaic strips adjacent to the first layer of adhesive material, wherein the plurality of photovoltaic strips are positioned relative to the sheet of transparent material in response to the light profile comprising exitant light characteristics of the plurality of light concentrating geometric features, wherein each of the plurality of photovoltaic strips are coupled via an associated plurality of bus bars, wherein a plurality of gap regions are located between bus bars between neighboring photovoltaic strips from the plurality of photovoltaic strips;
disposing a rigid layer of material adjacent to the plurality of photo voltaic strips to form a composite photovoltaic structure;
and
laminating the composite photovoltaic structure to fill the plurality of gap regions with adhesive material and to form the laminated photovoltaic structure, wherein adhesive material adheres to the bus bars.

8 more elements

A method for forming a photovoltaic module comprising:

providing a sheet of transparent material having a plurality of light concentrating geometric features;
processing the sheet of transparent material on a profiling device to capture a light profile of the transparent material using a sensing device;
storing information associated with the light profile for the sheet of transparent material in a memory of a computing device;
disposing a first layer of adhesive material adjacent to the sheet of transparent material;
disposing the plurality of photovoltaic strips adjacent to the first layer of adhesive material, wherein the plurality of photovoltaic strips are positioned relative to the sheet of transparent material in response to the light profile the plurality of light concentrating geometric features, wherein each of the plurality of photovoltaic strips are coupled via an associated plurality of bus bars, wherein a plurality of gap regions are located between bus bars between neighboring photovoltaic strips from the plurality of photovoltaic strips;
disposing a rigid layer of material adjacent to the plurality of photo voltaic strips to form a composite photo voltaic structure;
laminating the composite photovoltaic structure to fill the plurality of gap regions with adhesive material and to form the laminated photovoltaic structure, wherein adhesive material adheres to the bus bars;
causing the adhesive material to become transparent during the laminating;
and
isolating a pair of bus bars and maintaining a determined separation between the pair of bus bars using the adhesive material filling gap regions located between the pair of bus bars during the laminating.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/888,037Filed 22 Sep 2010
Published: US 2012/0067398 A122 Mar 2012
Granted: 1 Jul 2014
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification22 codes

H10F 19/80
Integrated devices, or assemblies of multiple devices, comprising at least one photovoltaic cell covered by group H10F10/00, e.g. photovoltaic…
B32B 17/10018
Characterized by the number, the constitution or treatment of glass sheets: comprising only one glass sheet
B32B 17/10146
Treatment of at least one glass sheet: face treatment, e.g. etching, grinding or sand blasting
B32B 17/1055
Laminated safety glass or glazing: characterized by the resin layer, i.e. interlayer