A solar cell, and methods of fabricating said solar cell, are disclosed. The solar cell can include a first emitter region over a substrate, the first emitter region having a perimeter around a portion of the substrate. A first conductive contact is electrically coupled to the first emitter region at a location outside of the perimeter of the first emitter region.

An external edge seal is used at the exterior edges of different modules to decrease the permeation of moisture and reactive gas to lengthen the life span of the modules. The sealed module can be a photovoltaic module, an insulating glass unit, a screen, a dynamic glazing product, a switchable window, an electrochromic window, a thin-film transistor, or other modules using items between substrates. The edge seal includes a desiccated adhesive carried by a barrier film to form a tape. The vapor barrier can be placed along the edge of a sealed module or around the edge and against portions of the outer substrate surfaces of the sealed module to provide a desiccated seal that provides or lengthens the desiccated path that moisture vapor must follow before permeating the inner space of the sealed module.

A multilayer film which is excellent in versatile adhesiveness to various functional materials regardless of the temperature at which the multilayer film is used, is provided and has a resin layer in at least one surface, where the resin layer satisfies at least one of the features A to C described below; and if Xs and Xc are the positive secondary ion normalized intensities of GCIB-TOF-SIMS of each component at the positions corresponding to 20% and 50% of the thickness from the surface layer of the resin layer, all components satisfy 0.5Xs/Xc2.0. Feature A: All of an acrylic resin, a polyester resin and a urethane resin are contained. Feature B: An acrylic modified polyester resin and a urethane resin are contained. Feature C: All of an acrylic skeleton, a polyester skeleton and a urethane skeleton are contained.

A solar module comprising: one or more solar cells having a front face and a back face, said solar cells being electrically connected to a terminal via one or more electrically conductive interconnect members, and surrounded by an encapsulant; an insulating backsheet arranged to overlay the one or more solar cells and encapsulant on a back face side of the module; and a laminate interlayer interposed between the encapsulant and the backsheet, the laminate interlayer comprising an electrically insulating layer and a metallic barrier film arranged in that order from a front face side of the module to the back face side of the module; wherein the laminate interlayer has a lateral extent less than the lateral extent of the backsheet.

The disclosure provides systems and methods to monitor the degradation of polymer layers in polymer based photovoltaic modules using an optical sensor. The optical sensor is embedded in a polymer layer of the polymer based photovoltaic module.

A cooling system for a solar energy conversion device is provided. The system includes a photovoltaic panel and a fluid reservoir circulating a nanofluid cooling medium. A primary thermoelectric generator is included on an underside of the photovoltaic panel. A heat pipe is included on an underside of the primary thermoelectric generator. An evaporator portion of the heat pipe is formed by contact with the underside of the photovoltaic panel, while a condenser portion of the heat pipe is immersed in the cooling medium of the fluid reservoir. A secondary thermoelectric generator is included in contact with an underside of the evaporator portion of the heat pipe and a copper heat sink. The photovoltaic panel includes layers of ethylene vinyl acetate and polyvinyl fluoride.

A cooling system for a solar energy conversion device is provided. The system includes a photovoltaic panel and a fluid reservoir circulating a nanofluid cooling medium. A primary thermoelectric generator is included on an underside of the photovoltaic panel. A heat pipe is included on an underside of the primary thermoelectric generator. An evaporator portion of the heat pipe is formed by contact with the underside of the photovoltaic panel, while a condenser portion of the heat pipe is immersed in the cooling medium of the fluid reservoir. A secondary thermoelectric generator is included in contact with an underside of the evaporator portion of the heat pipe and a copper heat sink. The photovoltaic panel includes layers of ethylene vinyl acetate and polyvinyl fluoride.

An adhesive resin composition includes: an ethylene-unsaturated ester copolymer (A); and an epoxy group-containing ethylene-based copolymer (B) (other than the ethylene-unsaturated ester copolymer (A)), in which a content of a constituent unit derived from an unsaturated ester in the ethylene-unsaturated ester copolymer (A) is more than 20 mass % with respect to all constituent units forming the ethylene-unsaturated ester copolymer (A), and an absolute value of a difference (X.sub.1X.sub.2) between a content (X.sub.1) of a constituent unit derived from ethylene with respect to all the constituent units forming the ethylene-unsaturated ester copolymer (A) and a content (X.sub.2) of a constituent unit derived from ethylene with respect to all constituent units forming the epoxy group-containing ethylene-based copolymer (B) is 10 mass % or less.

The present invention provides a photovoltaic panel packaging structure and method for the same. The packaging structure comprises a frame and a solar photovoltaic panel. The solar photovoltaic panel includes a first frame surface and a second frame surface with a receiving space and grooves formed therein. The a solar photovoltaic panel is installed in the receiving space and stacked on top of a first stop portion. The solar photovoltaic panel includes a first encapsulating layer, a second encapsulating layer. The first encapsulating layer includes a plurality of engaging strips extending along the edges of the solar photovoltaic panel, the engaging strips are respectively embedded in the corresponding grooves to hold the solar photovoltaic panel in place in the frame. Meanwhile, a third encapsulating layer extends to connect to the second frame surface. As a result, weight and thickness can be reduced while reducing multiple packaging passes and simplifying the assembly process.

The invention relates to a photovoltaic module including a photovoltaic unit having a plurality of photovoltaic cells electrically connected in series and spaced apart from one another, the adjacent photovoltaic cells being electrically connected pairwise by a metal interconnector which extends at least in part into an interconnection space separating said adjacent photovoltaic cells, an encapsulation structure made of a polymer-based encapsulation material, which sandwiches the opposite sides of the photovoltaic cells, defining a region of cell coverage, and the interconnector in the interconnection space, defining a region of interconnector coverage, and a spacer incorporated into the encapsulation structure and partially superposed on the interconnector in the region of interconnector coverage, the spacer being made of a material having, at least at a temperature of 40 C., a modulus of elasticity lower than the modulus of elasticity of the encapsulation material.