Novel encapsulant architecture on the road to photovoltaic module power output increase

Abstract

Nowadays, non-silicon materials on photovoltaic modules represent near half of its final price. Therefore, actions focused on photovoltaic module material reduction, as well as final photovoltaic module power increment, will have positive impacts on the factory annual economic balance. In this work, we propose a novel ethylene-vinylacetate (EVA) encapsulant architecture, which allows an excellent light management without any change in the production line. It is based on the enlargement of the solar radiation spectral range reaching the cell by the use of a low ultraviolet cut off EVA as a front encapsulant, and an original White EVA as a rear encapsulant film, which promotes the radiation reflectance by the free-silicon area inside of the module. Real size photovoltaic modules with this encapsulant design have been fabricated in an automatic line and the highest power increment measured is 5.16 W. This implies a valuable improvement on the power distribution of a photovoltaic module production line. These photovoltaic modules have also successfully overcome the most common aging tests.