摘要 |
Provided are novel photovoltaic module structures and fabrication techniques that include a composite encapsulant disposed and substantially filling voids between at least one sealing sheet and one or more photovoltaic cells. The composite encapsulant contains a bulk encapsulant and filler uniformly distributed throughout the bulk encapsulant. In certain embodiments, at least about 30% by weight of the composite encapsulant is the filler. Adding certain fillers into polymer-based bulk encapsulants in such large amounts reduces encapsulation costs and improves certain performance characteristics of the resulting composite encapsulants. In certain embodiments, the composite encapsulants have better temperature stability, UV stability, mechanical integrity, and/or adhesion than traditional encapsulants. Also, in certain embodiments, the added fillers do not substantially alter the optical properties of initial bulk encapsulants. The composite encapsulants are particularly useful for a front light-incident side of a module. |