JP2002008455A - Wiring material and solar cell module including the same - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: An electrochemical cell such as a solar cell module can be used for a long period of time even under conditions where thermal expansion and contraction are repeated. SOLUTION: A plurality of conductors 16 are interposed between flexible joining tapes 12 and 14, and both joining tapes 1 are provided.
By connecting the conductors 2 and 14 to the respective conductors 16, the wiring material 1
0. The cell rows 22 of the solar cell module 20 are manufactured by electrically connecting the aligned solar cells 2 with each other via the wiring member 10.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wiring member and a solar cell module including the same, and more particularly, to a wiring member having no fear of being damaged or detaching from an electrochemical cell and a solar cell module including the same. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view of a solar cell module according to the prior art, with a part thereof omitted. In this solar cell module 1, a cell row 4 in which a plurality of solar cells 2 are electrically connected in series to each other by a flat conductor 3 (wiring member) shown in FIG. It is housed in a resin case 5. In this case, the flat conductor 3
Both ends of the lower surface of the solar cell 2 are adjacent to each other via a conductive adhesive 6 in which a powder of a conductive substance such as copper, silver or graphite is dispersed in a thermosetting resin such as an epoxy resin. 2 are joined to the respective upper end surfaces. A portion other than the solar cell 2 and the flat conductor 3 in the case 5 is filled with a translucent resin 7, and the solar cell 2 is positioned and fixed by the translucent resin 7. In addition, as a constituent material of the plate-shaped conductor 3, soft copper or the like plated with nickel or tin is exemplified.

[0003] The solar cell module 1 configured as described above is usually used outdoors. Since the temperature changes outdoors with time, the solar cell module 1 constantly repeats thermal expansion and contraction. Along with this, the solar cell 2 positioned and fixed to the case 5 is displaced.

As described above, the flat conductor 3 is made of soft copper or the like, while the case 5 is made of resin.
The former has a larger coefficient of thermal expansion. For this reason, when the solar cell module 1 thermally expands, the expansion amount of the flat conductor 3 becomes larger than the displacement amount of the solar cell 2. However, since the flat conductor 3 is joined to the solar cell 2, it is difficult to expand the flat conductor 3 into a planar shape. Therefore, the flat conductor 3 tends to bend, but has poor flexibility because it is formed of a metal plate. For this reason, a large stress acts on the vicinity of the central portion of the plate-shaped conductor 3, and as a result, the plate-shaped conductor 3 may be bent and distortion may remain. When the thermal expansion / contraction of the solar cell module 1 is repeated in a state where the strain remains as described above, there is a concern that the flat conductor 3 may cause fatigue failure starting from the strain.

Further, since it is difficult for the flat conductor 3 to expand and bend in a planar manner, the same applies to the joint between the flat conductor 3 and the solar cell 2, that is, the conductive adhesive 6. Large stress acts on For this reason, the mechanical strength of the conductive adhesive 6 is reduced, so that the flat conductor 3
Is likely to come off from the solar cell 2.

In order to solve such a problem, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-177117 discloses a solar cell using a collective wire 9 in which a plurality of thin conductive wires 8 are entangled with each other as shown in FIG. Battery modules have been proposed. The publication also states that since the assembly wire 9 is an assembly of thin conductive wires 8 having elasticity and flexibility, the above-described stresses are alleviated.

[0007]

However, even if the plurality of thin conductive wires 8 themselves have elasticity and flexibility, when the plurality of conductive wires 8 are entangled with each other to form the collective wire 9, the rigidity is low. Will increase. For this reason, when the solar cell module 1 thermally expands similarly to the above-mentioned flat conductor 3, a large stress acts on the assembly line 9 itself and the joint portion between the assembly line 9 and the solar battery cell. After all,
The technology described in -177117 has an aspect that it is hard to completely eliminate the concern that the wiring member is damaged or detached from the solar cell.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and the stress does not concentrate at one point, and the stress acting on the junction with the electrochemical cell is extremely small. It is an object of the present invention to provide a wiring member that does not have a fear of being detached from an electrochemical cell or a solar cell module including the same.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a pair of flexible bonding tapes, a pair of bonding tapes interposed between the pair of bonding tapes, and Said one
A plurality of conductors joined to each of the pair of joining tapes, and an electrochemical cell is joined to both ends of each of the conductors exposed from the pair of tapes. Here, the electrochemical cell is a cell that generates an electromotive force when an oxidation reaction or a reduction reaction occurs in an electrode.

With this configuration, the conductor is supported by the pair of joining tapes. Thus, when the electrochemical cell is displaced, the conductor is gently bent by the pair of bonding tapes. Therefore, the stress acting on the conductor itself and the joint between the conductor and the electrochemical cell is significantly reduced. Therefore, damage to the conductor and detachment from the electrochemical cell are avoided.

Further, since the conductor is supported by the bonding tape, a plurality of conductors can be simultaneously and simultaneously bonded to the electrochemical cell. That is, the joining between the wiring member and the electrochemical cell can be easily performed.

A preferred example of the electrochemical cells electrically connected to each other by the wiring member having such a configuration is a solar cell.

Further, the present invention relates to a solar cell module having a cell row in which a plurality of aligned solar cells are electrically connected to each other by a wiring member, wherein the wiring member has flexibility. A pair of joining tapes, and a plurality of conductors interposed between the pair of joining tapes and joined to each of the pair of joining tapes, and exposed from the pair of joining tapes. The invention is characterized in that both ends of each of the conductors and the solar cell are joined.

For the reasons described above, there is no concern in this solar cell module that the conductor is damaged or the conductor is detached from the solar cell.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of a wiring member according to the present invention in relation to a solar cell module having the same will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Note that components corresponding to the components shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 1 shows a wiring member according to the present embodiment.
In the wiring member 10, a plurality of conductors 16 are interposed between the first joining tape 12 and the second joining tape 14, and the conductors 16 are joined to both joining tapes 12, 14. Become.

The first joining tape 12 and the second joining tape 14 are made of a material having extremely high flexibility, for example,
It is made of a polymer thin film such as polyimide or polyester and has the same dimensions as each other. With both joining tapes 12 and 14,
As described later, when the solar cell module thermally expands,
The stress acting on the conductor 16 is dispersed.

On one end surface of both joining tapes 12 and 14,
The adhesive 18 is applied in advance. In the following description, the surface of both the bonding tapes 12 and 14 on which the adhesive 18 is applied is referred to as a bonding surface.

The conductor 16 made of soft copper or the like plated with nickel or tin or the like is a long and thin thin plate,
The conductors 16 are equally spaced from each other.

The bonding tapes 12 and 14 and the conductor 16 are
They are joined to each other via an adhesive 18. That is,
The lower end surface of the conductor 16 is joined to the joining surface of the first joining tape 12, while the upper end surface is joined to the joining surface of the second joining tape 14. As a result, the portion of the conductor 16 where the joining tapes 12 and 14 are joined is supported by the joining tapes 12 and 14.

Further, between the conductors 16 adjacent to each other, the joining surfaces of the joining tapes 12 and 14 are joined without any gap. For this reason, the two joining tapes 12, 1
The conductor 16 joined to 4 is not displaced between the joining tapes 12 and 14.

The joining tapes 12 and 14 are joined only near the center of the conductor 16. That is, each conductor 1
6 are exposed from both joining tapes 12 and 14 in the longitudinal direction. Electrochemical cells such as solar cells are joined to both ends.

Next, a partially omitted vertical sectional view of the solar cell module according to the present embodiment is shown in FIG. In this solar cell module 20, a cell row 22 in which adjacent solar cells 2 and 2 are electrically connected by the wiring member 10 is housed in the case 5.

The solar cell module 20 includes, for example,
It can be manufactured as follows. First, after both ends of the conductor 16 exposed from both the bonding tapes 12 and 14 are placed on the upper end surfaces of the solar cells 2 and 2, the ends of the conductor 16 and the upper end surfaces of the solar cells 2 and 2 are connected. The conductive adhesive 6 is applied to the contact location. The interval between the solar cells 2 and 2 is substantially equal to the width of both bonding tapes 12 and 14, and therefore, the first bonding tape 12 is interposed between the two solar cells 2 and 2.

As described above, the wiring member 10 is formed by joining all the conductors 16 to the joining tapes 12 and 14, so that the conductors 16 are simultaneously and simultaneously placed on the upper end surfaces of the solar cells 2 and 2. Can be mounted and joined.
That is, there is no need to perform a complicated operation of individually placing and joining the conductors 16 on the upper end surfaces of the solar cells 2 and 2.

Next, a heat treatment is applied to the conductive adhesive 6.
To cure. Thereby, the two solar cells 2 are mechanically connected via both ends of the conductor 16, and the cell row 22 shown in FIG. 3 is manufactured. In FIG. 3, a part of the wiring member 10 is cut away.

In this case, the conductive adhesive 6 and the conductor 16
Is an electrical conductor, and eventually both solar cells 2, 2 mechanically joined via these are electrically connected.

The cell row 22 thus manufactured is
The light-transmitting resin 7 is housed in the case 5 filled with about half of the light-transmitting resin 7, and the remaining part of the case 5 is further filled with the light-transmitting resin 7, and then the light-transmitting resin 7 is cured. The solar cell module 20 shown in FIG.

The wiring member 10 and the solar cell module 20 according to the present embodiment are basically configured as described above, and the operation thereof will be described next.

When the solar cell module 20 is installed outdoors, the temperature changes with time and the solar cell module 20 undergoes thermal expansion and contraction. For example, in a time zone when the temperature rises, the solar cell module 20 thermally expands.

At this time, the conductor 16 expands more thermally than the case 5.
The flexibility of the joining tape 12 and the second joining tape 14 is extremely high as described above. Accordingly, as the solar cell module 20 thermally expands, the conductor 16 is supported by the bonding tapes 12 and 14 from above or below the center portion in a state where the conductor 16 is supported by the bonding tapes 12 and 14. Bends gently. As a result, the stress acting on the conductor 16 is dispersed without being concentrated on one point of the conductor 16. As a result, it is possible to avoid the strain from remaining in the conductor 16, so that the conductor 16 can be prevented from being damaged.

Moreover, the conductor 16 and the double-bonding tape 1
Since the members 2 and 14 are easily curved, the stress acting on the joint between the conductor 16 and the solar cells 2 and 2, that is, the stress acting on the conductive adhesive 6 is also significantly reduced. Therefore, the conductor 16 is also prevented from falling off from the solar cells 2 and 2.

On the other hand, when the temperature drops and the solar cell module 20 contracts, the conductor 16 and the joining tapes 12 and 14 are restored to their original shapes. Therefore, no stress acts on the conductor 16 and the conductive adhesive 6 in the process of the contraction, so that the conductor 16 is not damaged or dropped from the solar cell 2.

As will be understood from the above, in the solar cell module 20 according to the present embodiment, even if the solar cell module 20 repeats thermal expansion and contraction, the conductor 1
There is no fear that the 6 will be damaged or fall off from the solar cell 2.

In the above embodiment, the solar cell 2 has been described as an example of the electrochemical cell. However, other electrochemical cells such as an electric double layer capacitor can be adopted.

[0036]

As described above, according to the wiring member of the present invention, the conductor is supported by the pair of flexible bonding tapes. Therefore, when an electrochemical cell such as a solar cell is displaced, the conductor is gently curved. Therefore, since the stress acting on the conductor and the joint between the conductor and the electrochemical cell is extremely small, there is no concern that the conductor is damaged or detached from the electrochemical cell.

Further, according to the solar cell module of the present invention, the aligned solar cells are electrically connected to each other by the wiring member. Therefore,
There is no fear that the wiring member is damaged or the solar cell and the wiring member are separated from each other, and the effect that the reliability of operation can be ensured for a long period is achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective sectional view of a main part of a wiring member according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a partially omitted vertical cross-sectional view of a solar cell module having a cell row electrically connected by a wiring member of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a partially cutaway plan view of a main part of a cell row included in the solar cell module of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a partially omitted vertical sectional view of a solar cell module according to a conventional technique.

5 is a partially cut-away schematic overall perspective view of a flat conductor that electrically connects solar cells included in the solar cell module of FIG. 4 to each other.

FIG. 6 is a schematic overall perspective view of a wiring member (assembly line) provided in a solar cell module according to another related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1, 20 ... Solar cell module 2 ... Solar cell 4, 22 ... Cell row 6 ... Conductive adhesive 10 ... Wiring material 12, 14 ... Bonding tape 16 ... Conductor 18 ... Adhesive

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A pair of flexible joining tapes, and a plurality of conductors interposed between the pair of joining tapes and joined to each of the pair of joining tapes. A wiring member, wherein electrochemical cells are joined to both ends of each of the conductors exposed from the pair of tapes. 2. The wiring member according to claim 1, wherein said electrochemical cells are solar cells. 3. A solar cell module having a cell row in which a plurality of aligned solar cells are electrically connected to each other by a wiring member, wherein the wiring member is a pair of flexible bonding members. Tape and
A plurality of conductors interposed between the pair of joining tapes and joined to each of the pair of joining tapes, and both ends of each conductor exposed from the pair of tapes And a solar cell, wherein the solar cell is joined to the solar cell module.