Methods of hermetically sealing photovoltaic modules using powder consisting essentially of glass

摘要

In various embodiments, photovoltaic modules are hermetically sealed by providing a first glass sheet, a photovoltaic device disposed on the first glass sheet, and a second glass sheet, a gap being defined between the first and second glass sheets, disposing a glass powder within the gap, and heating the powder to seal the glass sheets.

主权项

1. A method of hermetically sealing a photovoltaic module, the method comprising:
providing a structure comprising:
a first glass sheet,a photovoltaic device disposed on the first glass sheet, anda second glass sheet disposed over the photovoltaic device, the first glass sheet and the second glass sheet thereby defining a gap therebetween at least partially spanned, over only a portion of an area of the gap, by the photovoltaic device; disposing a powder consisting essentially of glass within the gap at an edge region proximate (i) an edge of the first glass sheet, (ii) an edge of the second glass sheet, or (iii) edges of the first and second glass sheets; and heating the powder within the gap to seal the first and second glass sheets at the edge region with a layer of melted glass powder, wherein (i) a conductive bus ribbon electrically coupled to the photovoltaic device extends out from the first and second glass sheets through the sealed edge region, and (ii) at the sealed edge region, the conductive bus ribbon is disposed in contact with the second glass sheet and the layer of melted glass powder, but not with the first glass sheet.