Module Development

One of the critical processes in PV manufacturing is module lamination. The work in our module team can be divided into two parts. One part is the interconnection of the solar cells. The cells are first interconnected into strings in a variety of ways, from five busbars to multi-wires. Here, the solar cells can be full size, half size or third size. Then the solar cell clusters are assembled with ribbons to produce a PV module. The other part is vacuum lamination, which achieves the longevity of the solar module to withstand different weather conditions. Both crosslinking and thermoplastic polymer encapsulants are evaluated in this process, including EVA, POE and TPO. Various sizes of modules have been encapsulated, from single module to mini module to commercial module sizes with structures such as double glass, glass/back sheet, front/back sheet. Energy conversion efficiencies beyond 23% on active module area of 243.36 cm² are achieved in 2020.

Another topic is the lightweight, flexible module. By eliminating the need for a glass module structure, a significant weight reduction can be achieved while maintaining compatible performance. It expands the variety of applications that are unsuitable for heavy silicon panels and without additional load bears during installation, such as integration of PV on the curved surface of vehicles (VIPV) and of buildings (BIPV), as well as the application of floating PV.