Patent Application
20230275171
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a solar cell module and a manufacturing method thereof.
With continuous development of the industry, a manufacturing ability of crystalline silicon has been constantly improved, and various large-sized silicon wafers have been used in the photovoltaic industry. At the same time, a research on high-efficiency solar cell is also making continuous progress. At present, a market share of a large-sized multi-busbar solar cell is getting higher and higher, and the large-sized multi-busbar solar cell has advantages of high efficiency and low cost. Currently, welding strips commonly used for a solar cell are a circular welding strip, a flat welding strip, etc. For the solar cell, it is necessary to reduce shading by a metal welding strip and reduce a distance between a back plate material and a solar cell, thereby improving a light extraction efficiency.
An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a solar cell module and a manufacturing method thereof, which can reduce a total amount of the encapsulant material used, reduce a thickness of the encapsulant material layer, and reduce a distance between the back plate material and the solar cell string and/or the distance between the front plate material and the solar cell string, it also can avoid a charged body (e.g., the welding strip) being in direct contact with the glass, and improve anti-Potential Induced Degradation (PID) performance of the module.
In a first aspect, a manufacturing method of a solar cell module is provided, the method includes: providing a solar cell string; fabricating a back plate, a reserved hole being opened in the back plate; providing a front plate; arranging the solar cell string on the front plate; injecting an encapsulant material; and curing the encapsulant material, to obtain the solar cell module.
In a second aspect, a solar cell module is provided, which is manufactured by using the manufacturing method according to the first aspect.
In order to clearly illustrate the technical solution of the embodiments of the invention, the drawings of the embodiments will be briefly described in the following; it is obvious that the described drawings are only related to some embodiments of the invention and thus are not limitative of the invention.
In order to make objects, technical details and advantages of the embodiments of the invention apparent, the technical solutions of the embodiment will be described in a clearly and fully understandable way in connection with the drawings related to the embodiments of the invention. It is obvious that the described embodiments are just a part but not all of the embodiments of the invention. Based on the described embodiments herein, those skilled in the art can obtain other embodiment(s), without any inventive work, which should be within the scope of the invention.
Unless otherwise defined, all the technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meanings as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure belongs. The terms, such as “first,” “second,” or the like, which are used in the description and the claims of the present disclosure, are not intended to indicate any sequence, amount or importance, but for distinguishing various components. The terms, such as “comprise/comprising,” “include/including,” or the like are intended to specify that the elements or the objects stated before these terms encompass the elements or the objects and equivalents thereof listed after these terms, but not preclude other elements or objects. The terms, such as “connect/connecting/connected,” “couple/coupling/coupled” or the like, are not limited to a physical connection or mechanical connection, but may include an electrical connection/coupling, directly or indirectly. The terms, “on,” “under,” “left,” “right,” or the like are only used to indicate relative position relationship, and when the position of the object which is described is changed, the relative position relationship may be changed accordingly.
In a solar cell, a structure of a circular welding strip can reduce shading of a metal welding strip, and can reflect incident light from various angles, so currently mainstream multi-busbar modules on the market all use the circular welding strip. A thickness of a flat welding strip is usually 0.125 mm. When the welding strips have a same cross-sectional area, a diameter of the corresponding circular welding strip is also about 0.35 mm (originally, the diameter of the circular welding strip is 0.4 mm), which is 3 times a diameter of the flat welding strip. In order to ensure a yield of the module in a lamination process and reliability in a later time, an encapsulant film required by the module is also thicker than that of a conventional module, its thickness is usually more than 2 times that of the conventional module, and its weight is more than 1.5 times that of the conventional module. Moreover, even if the encapsulant film is thick, due to the large diameter of the circular welding strip and influence of the lamination process, it cannot be ensured that the circular welding strip can be protected by the encapsulant material and there will be a larger gap between the back plate material and the solar cell.
The closer the back plate material (such as a glass back plate) to the solar cell, the stronger a reflection effect on the light passing through the solar cell; and the larger a distance between the solar cell and the back plate material, the lower the power of the module.
In addition, as the large-sized battery is applied more widely, a size of the module also increases, so an amount of encapsulant material used and a weight of the module also increase, a cost of the module also increases, and difficulty in transportation and installation of the module increases as well. How to ensure the reliability of the module while reducing the weight of the module is a key research issue in the entire industry after the large-sized battery is widely applied.
At present, the following two schemes are adopted in the industry:
1. Reducing the diameter of the circular welding strip
Existing problems: a. At present, the diameter of the circular welding strip can be as small as 0.2 mm temporarily. However, due to reduction of the diameter of the welding strip, if the battery is not changed, a power loss of the module will increase and power will be sacrificed; if it is optimized, the battery needs to be changed, increasing the number of busbars, and increasing a silver paste consumption of the battery and the amount of welding strips used; b. After the welding strip becomes thinner, a yield strength of the welding strip becomes smaller, so it is easy to break during the manufacturing process; the welding strip is soft, and is difficult to stretch, and the welding strip will be bent, so that a precision of series welding becomes worse, the welding is difficult, and a defective rate increases;
2. Using a segmented welding strip. A front surface of the module uses a circular or triangular welding strip, to ensure full use of light, and a back surface thereof uses a flat welding strip. Existing problems: a. The power of the back surface is sacrificed by about 3%; b. It is hard to prepare the segmented welding strip, and because a residual stress at an interface of segments is relatively large, the segmented welding strip is relatively easy to break; in addition, a pattern thereof needs to be fixed, and a length of the segmented welding strip is not easy to change once fixed; c. During a welding process, devices need to be modified to identify the welding strip, and it is also necessary to avoid twisting of the welding strip, which will increase the defective rate of the process.
Therefore, it is necessary to reduce a thickness of an encapsulant material layer, for example, a thickness of the encapsulant material layer on the back surface, reduce an amount of the encapsulant material used, and reduce a distance between the back plate material and the solar cell, without reducing a diameter of a currently used circular welding strip while ensuring a sufficient yield strength of the welding strip and a small battery power loss; moreover, it also can avoid a charged body (e.g., the welding strip) being in direct contact with the glass, reduce influence of sodium ions, and improve anti-Potential Induced Degradation (PID) performance of the module.
Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solar cell module and a manufacturing method thereof. The manufacturing method includes: providing a solar cell string; fabricating a back plate, wherein a reserved hole is opened in the back plate; providing a front plate; arranging the solar cell string on the front plate; injecting an encapsulant material; and curing the encapsulant material, to obtain the solar cell module. In this way, the encapsulant material is injected through an injection hole or is directly injected, and the encapsulant material is directly cured without a lamination process. Since no lamination process is performed, pressure exerted by the lamination process on the solar cell string is avoided, thereby preventing the solar cell string from defects such as hidden cracks and fractures caused by pressure, and avoiding breakage of the welding strip due to pressure, etc. Further, since fluidity of the liquid encapsulant material is very good, the gap can be well filled, thereby reducing the amount of the encapsulant material used, reducing the thickness of the encapsulant material layer, and reducing the distance between the back plate material and the cell string. Further, the front plate and the back plate are bonded by a glass glaze, and the glass glaze can ensure a gap between the front plate and the solar cell string and a gap between the back plate and the solar cell string, so that the welding strip cannot directly contact the front plate material and the back plate material. In this way, the glass glaze acts as a supporting frame between the front plate, the back plate and the solar cell string, and the encapsulant material is filled in the gaps supported by these frames, so as to ensure that the welding strip is well protected, and ensure that a flexible encapsulant material is filled between the welding strip and the back plate material (especially a glass back plate) to fully protect the welding strip, improve a yield of the solar cell and avoid defects such as breakage of the welding strip of the solar cell and damage to the solar cell. Moreover, the support of the glass glaze prevents a charged body (such as a welding strip, a solar cell, etc.) from directly contacting the glass, reduces the influence of sodium ions, and improves the anti-PID performance of the module. In this way, without reducing the diameter of the currently used circular welding strip while ensuring the sufficient yield strength of the welding strip and the small battery power loss, the distance between the back plate material and the solar cell is reduced, that is, the thickness of the encapsulant film on the back surface is reduced; and it can be ensured that the encapsulant film in the solar cell module can wrap the back surface of the welding strip away from the solar cell, that is, the surface facing the back plate material, so as to fully protect the welding strip.
Moreover, for the other welding strips other than the circular welding strip, as well as the busbars, by using no lamination process or the lamination process with small pressure in the present disclosure, an amount of the encapsulant material used can be reduced, a distance between the back plate material and the solar cell string can be reduced, a bonding strength of the back plate material to the solar cell string and the front plate material can be improved, the welding strip is fully protected and stability and performance of the solar cell module are improved.
Hereinafter, the solar cell module and a manufacturing method thereof according to the embodiments of the present disclosure will be exemplarily described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
For example, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the providing a solar cell string may include: connecting a plurality of solar cells; welding a plurality of welding strips on at least one surface of the plurality of solar cells, to form the solar cell string; and detecting the solar cell string connected with the plurality of welding strips, wherein, the solar cell string includes a lead.
For example, the detection may be an electroluminescence (EL) detection.
For example, the solar cell string may include one string of solar cells or more strings of solar cells, that is, the solar cells are formed in a plurality of rows and columns, solar cells in each row are connected to each other to form one string of solar cells, and solar cells in different strings are also connected by welding strips or busbars to form the solar cell string.
For example, a plurality of welding strips may be arranged on a front surface of the plurality of solar cells, and the plurality of welding strips are welded on the front surface of the solar cells, or a plurality of welding strips may be arranged and welded on a back surface of the solar cells, or the welding strips may be arranged and welded on both the back surface and the front surface of the solar cells. Those skilled in the art may arrange the welding strips as required.
For example, in one example, fabricating a back plate, wherein a reserved hole is opened in the back plate, may include: providing a back plate glass, and form the reserved hole in the back plate glass; and printing the glass glaze in a periphery and a portion of a middle region of the back plate glass by using a template, wherein, the reserved hole is also configured to lead out a lead of the solar cell string. By arranging the glass glaze in the portion of the middle region of the back plate material, after curing, the glass glaze can act as a reflective material, which can reflect sunlight incident thereon back to the solar cells, thereby further improving a light conversion rate.
For example, forming a reserved hole in the back plate glass may be done by drilling a hole, and the reserved hole may be located at an edge of the solar cell module, which facilitates leading out the lead for electrical connection.
For example, in one example, providing a front plate may include: providing a front plate glass; and printing the glass glaze in a periphery of the front plate glass by using a template.
For example, in
For example, after arranging the solar cell string on the front plate, and before injecting an encapsulant material, the manufacturing method may further include: arranging the back plate on the solar cell string, to sandwich the solar cell string between the front plate and the back plate; and the injecting an encapsulant material, includes: injecting the encapsulant material through the reserved hole.
For example, after injecting an encapsulant material, and before curing the encapsulant material, the manufacturing method of a solar cell module according to this embodiment further includes: arranging the back plate on the solar cell string on which the encapsulant material is arranged, to sandwich the solar cell string and the encapsulant material between the front plate and the back plate; and the injecting the encapsulant material, includes: directly injecting the packing material between the solar cell string and the front plate glass and on the solar cell string.
For example, in one example, the arranging the solar cell string on the front plate, includes: transporting the solar cell string to the front plate using a manipulator; the arranging the back plate on the solar cell string, to sandwich the solar cell string between the front plate and the back plate, includes: arranging the back plate on one side of the solar cell string opposite to the front plate; leading out the lead of the solar cell string through the reserved hole; and aligning the glass glaze of the front plate with a glass glaze of the back plate, and aligning and fixing the back plate, the front plate, and the solar cell string; applying pressure to the back plate; curing the glass glazes of the front plate and back plate. Here, the solar cell string may include multiple rows and columns of solar cells, and connected solar cells are arranged on the front plate. As long as a position shift of the front plate, the back plate and the solar cell string can be prevented, the pressure applied when curing is enough, which is much smaller than the pressure during the lamination process of the encapsulant film in a conventional process, so it will not cause defects such as a hidden crack of the solar cell or a breakage of the welding strip.
For example, in one example, a glass glaze may not be provided on the front plate glass, and providing a solar cell string may include: connecting a plurality of solar cells; welding a plurality of welding strips on at least one surface of the plurality of solar cells, to form a plurality of strings of solar cells; the providing a front plate may include: providing a front plate glass. The arranging the solar cell string on the front plate includes: arranging the plurality of strings of solar cells on the front plate glass; connecting the plurality of strings of solar cells in series or in parallel; and testing the plurality of strings of solar cells electrically connected, for example, performing an EL test. After arranging the solar cell string on the front plate, and before injecting an encapsulant material, the manufacturing method further includes: arranging the back plate on the solar cell string, to sandwich the solar cell string between the front plate and the back plate, which includes: arranging the back plate on one side of the solar cell string opposite to the front plate glass; leading out the lead of the solar cell string through the reserved hole; and aligning and fixing the back plate, the front plate glass, and the solar cell string; applying pressure to the back plate; curing the glass glaze of the back plate. The injecting an encapsulant material includes: injecting the encapsulant material through the reserved hole.
Or, it may also be: arranging the plurality of strings of solar cells on the front plate glass; connecting the plurality of strings of solar cells in series or in parallel; and after testing the plurality of strings of solar cells electrically connected, for example, performing an EL test, directly injecting the packing material into the solar cell string, and then applying the back plate, and curing the encapsulant material, which is not limited by the embodiments of the present disclosure.
For example, in one example, a thickness of the glass glaze on the back plate glass is 500 to 800 microns.
For example, in one example, a thickness of the glass glaze on the front plate glass is 40 to 60 microns.
For example, the glass glaze may be a low-temperature glass glaze, which can be cured at a low temperature without sintering, and may be applied on a glass surface of the finished front plate or finished back plate of a solar cell module. The glass glaze may include titanium dioxide, silicon dioxide, an adhesive and a solvent. The adhesive may include one or more of epoxy resin, acrylic resin and silicone.
For example, as shown in
For example, in this example, before the solar cell string is sandwiched between the front plate and the back plate, the glass glazes on the back plate and the front plate are cured, where the glass glaze may be a conventional glass glaze. The glass glaze may include titanium dioxide and silicon dioxide, and the silicon dioxide acts as an adhesive during high-temperature sintering. The glass glaze on the front plate glass is located in the periphery of the front plate glass and has a thickness of 500 to 800 microns, the glass glaze on the back plate glass is located in the periphery and the portion of the middle region of the back plate glass, a thickness of the glass glaze in the periphery of the back plate glass is less than or equal to the thickness of the glass glaze in the periphery of the front plate glass, and a thickness of the glass glaze in the middle portion region of the back plate glass is 40 to 60 microns. An orthogonal projection of the glass glaze on the front plate glass on the solar cell string may be located outside an orthogonal projection of the glass glaze on the back plate glass.
For example, an orthogonal projection of the glass glaze on the front plate glass on the solar cell string may be located outside an orthogonal projection of the glass glaze on the back plate glass, as long as the two are staggered and can be seamlessly connected after sandwiching the solar cell string, which is not limited in the embodiments of the present disclosure.
For example, in one example, the curing the encapsulant material, to obtain the solar cell module, may include: irradiating with ultraviolet light to cure the encapsulant material; or curing the encapsulant material at high temperature.
For example, in one example, after curing the encapsulant material, the manufacturing method of a solar cell module may further include: applying a sealant 9; and installing a frame 10 to form the solar cell module.
For example, further, before applying the sealant, the manufacturing method may further include: applying a sealing material and a desiccant between the front plate and the back plate, and arranging a sealant on an outer side of the back plate material and the front plate material on which the desiccant is applied, so as to implement a double-layer sealed solar cell module. The desiccant is added between the double-layer sealed, which can further prevent water vapor from infiltrating from around the module to damage the solar cell module, and improve the stability and performance of the solar cell module.
For example, the encapsulant material may be liquid silicone, and may also include one or more of ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA), polyolefin elastomer (POE) and polyvinyl butyral (PVB). For example, the encapsulant material may be ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA), polyolefin elastomer (POE) or polyvinyl butyral (PVB), or may be a mixture of any two of the three or a mixture of the three.
For example, the polyolefin elastomer may be one or more of copolymers of ethylene and butene, pentene, hexene or octene. When the encapsulant material is ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA), EVA materials with different vinyl acetate (VA) contents may be used. When the encapsulant material is polyolefin elastomer, copolymers of ethylene and butene, pentene, hexene or octene or copolymers of ethylene and butene, pentene, hexene or octene with different ethylene contents, a mixture of two of EVA, POE and PVB with different corresponding contents, or a mixture of the three with different contents, may be used. When the encapsulant material film includes encapsulant materials with the same component or composition but with different contents, they may be regarded as different encapsulant materials. For example, when the encapsulant material is ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer, when the components are the same but the VA content is different, it may be considered as a different encapsulant material. When the encapsulant material is a mixture of polymer materials, when the composition is the same but the content is different, for example, when the encapsulant material includes a mixture of EVA and POE, if the content of EVA is different, it may be considered as a different encapsulant material. Only these two examples are given, and those skilled in the art may deduce other cases, so details will not be described here.
An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a solar cell module, which is manufactured by any of the manufacturing methods described above.
Hereinafter, several examples of the manufacturing method of the solar cell module according to the embodiments of the present disclosure are given with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Example 1: an exemplary manufacturing method of a solar cell module is as follows:
The module manufacturing process described in the example is as follows:
Wherein, the glass glaze 14 is applied in the periphery of the front plate material glass 3a, and the glass glaze 15 is also applied in the periphery and the portion of the middle region of the back plate glass 7a. The glass glaze is a low-temperature glass glaze, which has a high reflection characteristic and contains titanium dioxide, silicon dioxide, an adhesive, and a solvent, etc. The adhesive is one or more of epoxy resin, acrylic resin or silicone. The glass glaze in this embodiment is cured at a low temperature without sintering, and can be applied on a glass surface of the finished photovoltaic front plate or back plate. Before applying, it needs to make sure the glass surface is clean to ensure adhesion of the glass glaze to the glass. The encapsulant material is liquid silicone, which has high transmittance and may be cured at a high temperature or may be light cured.
Example 2: an exemplary manufacturing method of a solar cell module is as follows:
The module manufacturing process described in this example is as follows:
Wherein, the glass glaze 15 is applied in the periphery of the back plate glass 7a. The glass glaze 15 is a low-temperature glass glaze, which has a high reflection characteristic and contains titanium dioxide, silicon dioxide, an adhesive, and a solvent, etc. The adhesive is one or more of epoxy resin, acrylic resin or silicone. The glass glaze in this embodiment is cured at a low temperature without sintering, and may be applied on a glass surface of the finished photovoltaic front plate or back plate. Before applying, it needs to make sure the glass surface is clean to ensure adhesion of the glass glaze to the glass. Wherein, the glass glaze in the periphery of the glass has two functions of reflection and sealing, and its height is greater than that of the glass grit in the periphery of the solar cell in the middle. The encapsulant material is liquid silicone, which has high transmittance and may be cured at a high temperature or may be light cured.
Example 3: an exemplary manufacturing method of a solar cell module is as follows:
The module manufacturing process described in this example is as follows:
The glass glaze 14 is applied in the periphery of the front plate material glass 3a, and the glass glaze 15 is also applied in the periphery of the back plate glass 7a. The glass glaze is a conventional glass glaze that may be sintered at a high temperature, also has high reflectivity, needs to be printed on the glass surface when making the glass, and sintered during tempering to firmly adhere to the glass surface. The surfaces of both the front plate 3c and the back plate 7c are applied with the glass glaze and have been sintered when the module is assembled. The glass glaze of the front plate material glass 3a is applied in the periphery of the glass, and has a thickness of 500 to 800 microns; a thickness of the glass glaze in the periphery of the back plate glass 7a is less than or equal to the thickness of the glass glaze in the periphery of the front plate glass 3a, a thickness of the glass glaze in the middle region of the back plate glass 7a is about 50 microns, and a length and a width of the glaze of the front plate glass 3a are slightly greater than an inner diameter of the glaze of the back plate glass 7a. The glass grit in the periphery of the front plate glass is high in thickness, so it can directly carry the encapsulant material. The glaze of the back plate glass overlaps with the glaze of the front plate glass, and then the glaze of the back plate glass is inside the glaze of the front plate glass. There is an extrusion process in the module manufacturing process, which facilitates contact between the encapsulant material and the back plate glass. Excessive encapsulant material can overflow from the hole in the middle and from the periphery to discharge all the gas. The encapsulant material is liquid silicone, which has high transmittance and may be cured at a high temperature or may be light cured.
The solar cell module and manufacturing method thereof provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure have the following beneficial effects:
What are described above is related to the specific embodiments of the disclosure only and not limitative to the scope of the disclosure. The protection scope of the disclosure shall be based on the protection scope of the claims. Any modification and equivalent replacement may be made by those skilled in the art within the substantial protection scope of the embodiments of the present disclosure, which is regarded as falling within the protection scope of embodiments of the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202210177254.5 | Feb 2022 | CN | national |
