Patent Application
20140332057
This application claims priority to Chinese Application Serial Number 201310163646.7, filed May 7, 2013, which is herein incorporated by reference.
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a solar module.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, the worldwide storage of crude oil is decreased year by year. The energy issue becomes the world-concerned problem today. To solve the crisis of energy shortage, the development and utilization of various alternate energy sources is an urgent matter. Following the trend of environmental consciousness, the solar energy becomes a center stage in the related field because the solar energy possesses the advantages of non-pollution and unlimited resource. Therefore, the solar cell panel is frequently utilized in, for example, the roof of a building, the square or any other place with full of sunshine.
A solar module includes a plurality of the solar cells, an encapsulant, a back sheet and a frame which the above mentioned components are mounted on. The generating efficiency of a solar module is related to the temperature thereof. The higher the temperature of the solar module is, the less the efficiency of the energy conversion is. However, the utilization of additional active heat dissipation will increase the cost of the solar module and results in additional consumption of electric power.
Thus, there is a need to improve the efficiency of heat dissipation for a solar module without increasing the cost and the weight.
One aspect of this disclosure provides a solar module having passive mechanism of heat dissipation.
According to one embodiment of this invention, a solar module is provided. The solar module includes a back sheet, a transparent substrate, plural solar cells disposed between the back sheet and the transparent substrate, and an encapsulant for fastening the solar cells therebetween. The back sheet includes a light-receiving surface facing the solar cells, and a back surface opposite to the light-receiving surface. The reflectivity of the light-receiving surface is greater than 90%, and the reflectivity of the back surface is less than 10%.
In one or various embodiments of this invention, the back sheet may include a low reflectivity substrate having the back surface, wherein the light-receiving surface is coated by a high reflectivity material which the reflectivity thereof is greater than 90%.
In one or various embodiments of this invention, the back sheet may include a high reflectivity substrate having the light-receiving surface, wherein the back surface is coated a low reflectivity material which the reflectivity thereof is less than 10%.
In one or various embodiments of this invention, the back sheet includes a core layer, a first layer attached to one surface of the core layer, and a second layer attached to the other surface of the core surface. The first layer faces the solar cells and its reflectivity is greater than 90%. The reflectivity of the second layer is less than 10%.
In one or various embodiments of this invention, the back sheet has plural micro structures.
In one or various embodiments of this invention, the solar cells are connected in series by plural solder bands.
According to another embodiment of this invention, a solar module is provided. The solar module includes a back sheet, a bottom encapsulant disposed on the back sheet, plural solar cells disposed on the bottom encapsulant, an upper encapsulant disposed on the solar cells, and a transparent substrate disposed on the upper encapsulant. The reflectivity of the back sheet is less than 10%, while that of the bottom encapsulant is greater than 90%.
In one or various embodiments of this invention, the solar module includes a back sheet, a bottom encapsulant disposed on the back sheet, plural solar cells disposed on the bottom encapsulant, an upper encapsulant disposed on the solar cells, and a transparent substrate disposed on the upper encapsulant. The reflectivity of the bottom encapsulant is greater than 90%. The back sheet includes a core layer, a first layer attached to one surface of the core layer, and a second layer attached to the other surface of the core surface. The first layer faces the solar cells and its reflectivity is greater than 90%. The reflectivity of the second layer is less than 10%.
In one or various embodiments of this invention, the back sheet has a back surface opposite to the solar cells. The back surface has plural micro structures.
In one or various embodiments of this invention, the solar cells are connected in series by plural solder bands.
The back surface of the back sheet in the solar module possesses a low reflectivity and the heat dissipation is improved so that the heat radiation dissipation of the solar module is improved. That is, according to this invention, a passive mechanism of heat dissipation is provided without increasing the weight of the solar module. The efficiency of heat dissipation for the solar module is significantly improved.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description, drawings and appended claims.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are by examples, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The invention can be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description of the embodiment, with reference made to the accompanying drawings as follows:
Reference will now be made in detail to the present embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts. After understanding the preferred embodiment of this invention, a skilled person in the art may readily make any change and modification according to the technology introduced herein without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention.
In order to increase the usage of sunshine and improve the power generating efficiency of a solar module, the conventional solar module utilizes a light-colored back sheet with higher reflectivity so that the sunshine illuminating on the back sheet may be reflected to the solar cells and be reused. However, even the light-colored back sheet of the solar module has the advantage of high reflectivity, the heat radiation dissipation thereof is worse. Therefore, the power generating efficiency of this kind solar module is difficult to be improved.
In this disclosure, a solar module with two-colored back sheet is provided to match the requirements of high reflectivity and high heat dissipation.
In other words, the light-receiving surface 112 of the back sheet 110 facing the solar cells 130 is a light-colored surface with higher reflectivity. The back surface 114 of the back sheet 110 is a dark-colored surface with better efficiency of heat dissipation (high thermal radiation rate). Therefore, the solar module 100 may possess both advantages of high reflectivity and high heat dissipation.
Practically, the back sheet may include a single-colored substrate 111, which is coated by a coating with another color on one surface of the single-colored substrate 111, so that the color of the light-receiving surface 112 is different from that of the back surface 114. For example, in this embodiment, the back sheet 100 may include a low reflectivity substrate 111, and the reflectivity thereof is less than 10%. The low reflectivity substrate 111 is coated by a high reflectivity material 116 on the light-receiving side and the reflectivity of the high reflectivity material 116 is greater than 90%. Therefore, the specific back sheet 110 is obtained which the light-receiving surface 112 thereof has high reflectivity and the back surface 114 thereof has low reflectivity.
Besides, because the light-receiving surface 112 of the substrate 111 may possess a certain roughness during the coating of the high reflectivity material 116 on the light-receiving surface 112 of the low reflectivity substrate 111, the reflection ability of the light-receiving surface 112 may be further improved. More particularly, the roughness of the light-receiving surface 112 may increase the reflection ability of the back sheet 110 so that the light illuminating on the back sheet 110 may be reflected to the transparent substrate 120. The light may illuminate on the solar cells 130 again by the reflection of the transparent substrate 120 such that the light may be absorbed by the solar cells again. The usage rate of the light may be improved.
The transparent substrate 120 may be a glass substrate or other transparent plastics. The encapsulant 140 may include ethylene vinyl acetate resin (EVA), low density polyethylene (LDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE), Silicone, Epoxy, Polyvinyl Butyral (PVB), Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU), or the combination thereof, but not limited to these materials above.
The solar module 100 further includes a plurality of solder bands 150 which are utilized to connect the solar cells 130 in series in order to improve the output power of the solar module 100.
This design of the solar module 100 may not need any active mechanism of heat dissipation and the weight of the solar module will not be increased, neither. The temperature of the solar cells 130 may be effectively reduced so that the efficiency of photo-electric conversion may be enhanced.
In this embodiment, the back sheet may include a high reflectivity substrate 211 which is coated by a low reflectivity material 216 on the back side of the high reflectivity substrate 211. The reflectivity of the high reflectivity substrate 211 is greater than 90%, while the reflectivity of the low reflectivity material 216 is less than 10%. Therefore, the specific back sheet 210 is obtained which the light-receiving surface 212 thereof has high reflectivity and the back surface 214 thereof has low reflectivity.
In foregoing description, micro structures (e.g. micro trenches) may be optionally formed on the back surface 214 of the back sheet 210 such that the air convection ability and the heat exchange area are further enhanced. The low reflectivity material 216 may be optionally doped by a material for heat radiation exchange, for example, ceramics or carbon-silicon oxide mesopore composite materials. The materials may store heat and enhance the effect of infrared emission (thermal radiation).
In addition to utilizing the single-colored substrate with different-colored coating to obtain a two-colored substrate, the solar module may possess the advantages of high reflectivity and high thermal radiation rate by other methods. The following content will be described in detail by accompanying different embodiments.
In this embodiment, the back sheet 310 is a structure of stacked layers, and the back sheet 310 includes a core layer 311, an inner weather-resistant layer 313 attached to one surface of the core layer 311, and an outer weather-resistant layer 315 attached to the other surface of the core layer 311. The inner weather-resistant layer 313 is attached to the inner surface of core layer 311 (i.e. the surface facing the solar cells 330), while the outer weather-resistant layer 315 is attached to the surface of the core layer 311 opposite to the solar cells 330. The reflectivity of the inner weather-resistant layer 313 is greater than 90%, while that of the outer weather-resistant layer 315 is less than 10%.
The core layer may be made of PET. The materials of the inner weather-resistant layer 313 and the outer weather-resistant layer 315 may be Tedlar (produced by DuPont) or other fluoric weather-resistant layer. The inner weather-resistant layer 313 is selected from a light-colored Tedlar with higher reflectivity, while the outer weather-resistant layer 315 is selected from a dark-colored Tedlar with lower reflectivity. The inner weather-resistant layer 313 and the outer weather-resistant layer 315 are attached to the opposite sides of the core layer 311 respectively. Otherwise, selecting PET as the core layer 311 as above, the fluoric materials are then formed on the surfaces of the core layer 311 by coating the fluoric materials on the opposite sides, wherein the inner weather-resistant layer 313 has the reflectivity greater than 90%, and the outer weather-resistant layer 315 has reflectivity less than 10%. The back surface 314 of the outer weather-resistant layer 315 may optionally form a plurality of micro structures thereon. The back sheet 310 with different reflectivity on opposite sides is obtained by combining the core layer with Tedlar layers of different reflectivity. The back sheet possesses the advantages of high reflectivity and high heat radiation thereby.
In this embodiment, the upper encapsulant 440 is preferred to a high transparent material, while the material of the bottom encapsulant 420 may be the same as the upper encapsulant 440 whereas it is opaque and its reflectivity is greater than 90%. The back sheet 410 may be a dark-colored substrate and its reflectivity is less than 10%, as the substrate 111 in the first embodiment. The back sheet 410 also may be a light-colored core layer, and the outer weather-resistant layer 415 may be a dark-colored Tedlar or a coating dark-colored fluoric material. The back surface 414 of the outer weather-resistant layer 415 may optionally form a plurality of micro structures 418 thereon.
Because the bottom encapsulant 420 below the solar cells 430 has a higher reflectivity, the light illuminated thereon may be reflected or scattered to be reused by the solar cells 430. Therefore, the light usage rate of the solar module 400 may be improved, while the back sheet 410 with lower reflectivity may provide higher efficiency of heat radiation. The solar module 400 may possess both advantages of high reflectivity and high thermal radiation rate.
To sum up, for a solar module, the back surface of the back sheet having a lower reflectivity may increase the thermal radiation rate such that the heat radiation dissipation of the solar module is improved. In other words, this invention provides a passive mechanism of heat dissipation which may improve the efficiency of heat dissipation of a solar module without increasing the weight thereof.
Although the present invention has been described in considerable detail with reference to certain embodiments thereof, other embodiments are possible. Therefore, the spirit and scope of the appended claims should not be limited to the description of the embodiments contained herein.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing, it is intended that the present invention cover modifications and variations of this invention provided they fall within the scope of the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201310163646.7 | May 2013 | CN | national |
