JP2002343998A - Thin-film solar cell module and panel thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a thin-film solar cell module excellent in appearance which provides a character, symbol, pattern, etc., tinted in desired color when viewed from a surface side. SOLUTION: A thin-film solar cell 11a is provided where a transparent electrode layer 2, a photoelectric conversion layer 3, and a rear-surface electrode layer 4 are laminated in this order on a transmission-type insulating substrate 1, with at least one opening 10 formed which penetrates at least the rear-surface electrode layer 4 and the photoelectric conversion layer 3 among the transmission-type electrode layer, the photoelectric conversion layer, and the rear-surface electrode layer. An opaque rear-surface sealing material 6 is bonded to the side of the thin-film solar cell opposite to a light receiving surface, and the opening part shows a desired color when viewed from the light receiving surface side. The color shown by the opening part 10 represents the color of the rear-surface sealing material, the color of an adhesive for bonding the rear- surface sealing material to the rear-surface electrode layer, or the color of paint or a colored resist film applied on the rear-surface electrode layer and the opening part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thin-film solar cell module and a thin-film solar cell panel in which surface appearance is taken into consideration.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the surface color of a solar cell module is limited to, for example, black or bluish purple when the solar cell is crystalline, or brown when the solar cell is amorphous. Normally, the panel surface (light receiving surface) is formed of one color. As a result, there has been a situation in which a solar cell panel composed of such solar cell modules is very murky and gives only a dull impression to a person, and is tasteless and dry. Therefore, various ideas have been devised.

For example, in the case of a crystalline solar cell, a solar cell module has been invented in which solar cells are arranged at regular intervals and colored by coloring a back surface sealing material or the like. However, the size of the solar cell itself is large, and when viewed from the light receiving surface side, that is, from the front surface side, the cell itself has a color, and the effect of coloring the back surface sealing material is not so large. Furthermore, when the crystal cell itself is colored, the appearance of the appearance is excellent also in a method of obtaining a solar cell module having a coloring effect by a light interference effect by changing the thickness of the antireflection film on the cell surface. I couldn't say that. In addition, even in an amorphous thin-film solar cell module, using a light-transmitting solar cell, the opposite side to the light receiving surface, that is, the back side is colored by various methods to give the back side a color, and characters and patterns, etc. are provided. Was displayed. Recently, however, the development of thin-film photovoltaic modules integrated with building materials has been actively pursued. For the purpose of improving the design of the entire building and harmonizing with the scenery of the building, design from the front side is important. It is becoming. However, at present, the light-transmitting solar cell has not been rich in design in terms of color when viewed from the front side.

[0004] For example, as shown in FIG.
In the thin-film solar cell described in JP-A-71453, after the transparent conductive film 102 is removed for drawing characters and the like, the photoelectric conversion layer 104 made of an amorphous Si-based semiconductor is removed.
Is formed, the removed portion 103 of the transparent conductive film 102 has a reddish brown color, and the area other than the removed portion 103 has a slightly blackish reddish brown color. However, colors other than reddish brown are not shown,
It cannot be said that it is excellent in design in appearance. In addition, since the transparent conductive film 102 is removed first, an electrically isolated region is likely to occur. To eliminate the region, the wiring becomes complicated. If such an isolated region is not formed from the beginning, In the process of manufacturing a thin-film solar cell, this results in complexity.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and has excellent appearance in appearance having characters, symbols, patterns, and the like colored in a desired color when viewed from the front side. An object is to provide a thin-film solar cell module and a thin-film solar cell panel.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a thin film solar cell module according to the present invention comprises a transparent insulating substrate, a transparent electrode layer, a photoelectric conversion layer, and a back electrode layer laminated in this order. A thin-film solar cell having at least one opening penetrating at least the back electrode layer and the photoelectric conversion layer of the transparent electrode layer, the photoelectric conversion layer, and the back electrode layer; And an opaque back surface sealing material provided on the light-receiving surface, and the opening has a desired color when viewed from the light-receiving surface side. With this configuration, the solar cell surface (light receiving surface) can have an appearance that is in harmony with the solar cell frame material and the surrounding environment. Since any color can be displayed, a design excellent in appearance can be provided.

A plurality of openings can be combined to form a pattern. Here, the “pattern” includes various characters, various codes, various figures, and combinations thereof.

An example of the shape of the opening is a straight line. By making the widths of the straight lines of the plurality of openings or the distances between the straight lines different, it is possible to display a color that changes in gradation from a strong color of the opening to a strong color of the photoelectric conversion layer itself. it can.

[0009] The opening may have a discontinuous shape. Examples of discontinuous shapes include rectangles, squares,
There are ellipses and circles. These shapes may be appropriately combined. The non-continuous shape can give the solar cell as a whole a more colorful appearance even with the same aperture ratio as compared to the case of a straight line. Also, various patterns can be expressed.

The shape of the opening may be a combination of a linear shape and such a discontinuous shape. In this way, the degree of freedom in design is greatly improved.

In order for the human eye to reliably recognize the color presented by the opening, the width of the opening is desirably 75.
μm or more, more preferably 150 μm or more. Here, the “width of the opening” refers to the width of a straight line when the opening has a linear shape, and the shorter length (diameter) when the opening has a discontinuous shape. .

In consideration of the performance of the thin-film solar cell, the area ratio of the opening to the effective light receiving area of the thin-film solar cell is desirably 50% or less.

In one embodiment, the color of the opening is the color of the opaque back sealing material. In this case, a weather-resistant film such as a polyethylene terephthalate (hereinafter, referred to as PET) film or a fluorine-based film colored in a desired color can be used as the back surface sealing material. Alternatively, the color of the metal contained in the back surface sealing material can be used for reasons such as a moisture-proof function and fire spread prevention. In any case, since the back surface sealing material is used as a so-called coloring material for the opening, the opening can be colored without complicating the manufacturing process.

In one embodiment, the color of the opening is the color of an adhesive for bonding the back sealing material to the back electrode layer. As such an adhesive, there is a colored ethylene vinyl acetate (hereinafter, referred to as EVA) film. Also in this case, coloring of the opening can be realized without complicating the manufacturing process of the solar cell module.

A desired color may be displayed in the opening by applying a colored resist film on the back electrode layer and the opening. Since the coating process of the resist film is sometimes used in the manufacturing process of the thin-film solar cell to prevent oxidation of the back electrode and the like, the coloring of the opening with a colored resist obtained by adding a pigment to the resist complicates the manufacturing process. Not something. Also, instead of a colored resist film,
Paint may be used. Paints are rich in color types,
It is inexpensive and can be easily colored.

[0016] The thin-film solar cell module may have means for irregularly reflecting light on the opposite side (back side) of the light-receiving surface. By irregularly reflecting light on the back side, the degree of color of the thin-film solar cell itself can be reduced, and when characters or the like are displayed, the characters can be more clearly recognized even from a distance. Further, the amount of light absorbed by the photoelectric conversion layer can be increased and the characteristics can be improved by using a material or a color used as a means for irregularly reflecting light. Metal can be used as a means for such irregular reflection. Conventionally, metals have been used for moisture-proof function and fire spread prevention.
Since it is used for a part of the laminated back sealing material, the manufacturing process is not complicated. Further, a weather-resistant film processed into a lattice shape may be used. For example, a PET film or a fluorine-based film may be used. Since these are conventionally used as a back surface sealing material, they do not complicate the manufacturing process.

In a solar cell panel in which a large number of thin film solar cell modules are arranged vertically and horizontally, at least a part of these thin film solar cell modules is formed as a thin film solar cell module having any one of the above-described structures. Thus, a desired pattern can be displayed on the panel surface.

The area ratio of the opening to the effective light receiving area of the thin-film solar cell (hereinafter referred to as the opening ratio) is 0 to 50%.
By combining solar cells with different aperture ratios within the range, the tint of the colored color becomes stronger in the panel region with a larger aperture ratio, and the color tone of the photoelectric conversion layer becomes stronger in the region with a smaller aperture ratio. The design can be expressed by colors having gradations (shades).

Further, a pattern may be displayed on the front side (light receiving surface side) by using a thin film solar cell module in which the opening has a different color.

By arbitrarily changing the color and aperture ratio of the opening of the thin-film solar cell module, it is possible to combine various different colors and their shades, thereby expressing a more precise full-color design. be able to.

Since the operating current of a thin-film solar cell formed by integrating cells changes in proportion to the area of a single cell, thin-film solar cells having different aperture ratios have the same operating current when the number of integrated cells is equal. It depends on the aperture ratio. Therefore, when thin-film solar cells having different aperture ratios are connected in series, the operating point of each thin-film solar cell deviates from the maximum operating point. Accordingly, in a solar cell panel in which a large number of thin film solar cell modules having different aperture ratios are arranged in the vertical and horizontal directions, thin film solar cell modules having the same aperture ratio are connected in series, and thin film solar cell modules having different aperture ratios are connected. Are connected in parallel, the maximum power of each thin-film solar cell can be obtained.

[0022]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the illustrated embodiment is merely an example, and the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment.

Embodiment 1 A thin-film solar cell module of Embodiment 1 will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a front view of the thin-film solar cell module of Example 1, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are sectional views taken along lines II-II and III-III of FIG. 1, respectively. In these figures, 1 is a transparent insulating substrate, 2 is a transparent conductive film as a transparent electrode layer, 3 is a photoelectric conversion layer, 4 is a back electrode layer, 5 is an adhesive material, 6 is an opaque back sealing material, 7
Is a separation line of the transparent conductive film 2, 8 is a separation line of the photoelectric conversion layer 3, 9 is a separation line of the back electrode layer 4, and 10 is an opening. From the transparent insulating substrate 1 to the back electrode layer 4, a thin-film solar cell 11a is formed. Also, the regions of the thin-film solar cell 11a separated from each other by the above-described separation lines constitute cells. This thin-film solar cell module is manufactured as follows.

First, the transparent insulating substrate 1 is 4.0 m thick.
A glass substrate (size: 650 mm × 455 mm) of about m is used.
SnO ₂ (tin oxide) was formed by a VD method. Next, the transparent conductive film 2 was patterned using a fundamental wave of a YAG laser. By causing the laser light to enter from the glass surface, the transparent conductive film 2 is separated into strips, and the separation line 7 is formed.

Thereafter, the substrate from which the transparent conductive film was separated was ultrasonically cleaned with pure water, and a hydrogenated amorphous silicon film as the photoelectric conversion layer 3 was formed by a plasma CVD method. The photoelectric conversion layer 3 includes three layers of p-type amorphous silicon carbide, i-type amorphous silicon, and n-type amorphous silicon, and has a total thickness of about 100 nm to 600 nm. Next, patterning of the photoelectric conversion layer 3 was performed using a laser. When the laser beam is incident from the glass surface, the photoelectric conversion layer 3 is separated into strips, and the separation line 8 is formed. At this time, in order to prevent the transparent conductive film 2 from being damaged by the laser, it is preferable to use a second harmonic of a YAG laser having good transparency to the transparent conductive film 2 or the like.

Next, ZnO (zinc oxide) / Ag, which is the back electrode layer 4, was formed by magnetron sputtering. At this time, the thickness of the back electrode layer 4 is from about 300 nm to about 1 μm. Instead of ZnO, a film having high translucency such as ITO or SnO2 may be used, or a metal having high reflectivity such as Al may be used instead of Ag. Further, the method of forming the back electrode layer 4 may be an electron beam evaporation method. Thereafter, patterning of the back electrode layer 4 was performed using a laser. By irradiating the laser beam from the glass surface, the back electrode layer 4 is separated into strips, and the separation line 9 is formed. At this time, similarly to the patterning of the photoelectric conversion layer 3, in order to avoid damage to the transparent conductive film 2 due to the laser, a second harmonic of a YAG laser having good transparency of the transparent conductive film 2 is used as the laser. Good to do.

Next, using the fundamental wave of the YAG laser,
The opening 10 was patterned. Each opening 10 is formed as a straight line that is continuous in the direction perpendicular to the direction in which the separation lines 7, 8, 9 extend. The width of the straight line is 450 μm, the distance between the straight lines is 1.13 mm, and the characters as shown in FIG. By using a pattern mask 14 in which the portion 13 is processed by a laser, a laser beam is incident from a glass surface,
The transparent conductive film 2, the photoelectric conversion layer 3, and the back electrode layer 4 are removed to form a large number of openings 10 arranged in the direction in which the separation lines 7, 8, 9 extend. The mask 14 may be made of a material such as stainless steel or iron that does not transmit laser light, but is preferably subjected to a surface treatment so that the mask does not irregularly reflect the fundamental wave of the YAG laser. Also,
Pattern mask 1 with YAG laser fundamental wave energy
Care must be taken to provide a thickness that will not cause distortion or deformation of the work 4 itself. At this time, the processing direction of the straight line of the opening 10 may be parallel to the direction in which the separation lines 7, 8, and 9 extend, and may be parallel to the direction in which the separation lines 7, 8, and 9 extend. The opening 10 may be formed by removing only the photoelectric conversion layer 3 and the back electrode layer 4.
The opening 10 may be formed by using a photoresist and a chemical etching process instead of using laser processing.

Thereafter, ultrasonic cleaning was performed in pure water, and after drying, bus bars for extracting electricity were attached to the positive and negative electrodes.

Thereafter, using the transparent EVA as the adhesive material 5, the thin-film solar cell 11a
Opaque backside sealing material 6 with a vacuum laminator on the backside of
To form a laminate 1 having a cross-sectional structure shown in FIGS.
1 was obtained. At this time, a laminated film of white PET / aluminum / PET was used as the opaque back sealing material 6.
At this time, as the adhesive material 5, PVB (polyvinyl bityl) or the like may be used. Further, as the opaque back surface sealing material 6, a laminated film of polyethylene monofluoride or the like may be used. When viewed from the front side, the opening 10 has a white color,
Character XYZ could be displayed. At this time, in the present embodiment, the opening 10 is provided in the character portion, but the opening 1 is provided in a region other than the character portion.
0 may be provided to make the characters stand out. As for the terminals, the positive electrode and the negative electrode were respectively taken out of the holes of the opaque back surface sealing material 6, and could be taken out via the terminal box adhered to the back plate. Finally, an aluminum frame 12 was attached to the laminate 11 to complete a thin-film solar cell module.

The present embodiment is an example in which the opening 10 has a white color, and the color can be changed according to the harmony with the surrounding environment, the desire of the individual, and the like. Opening 1
As a method of coloring 0, the film of the opaque back surface sealing material 6 is colored, but the adhesive material 5 such as EVA may be colored. At this time, the film of the back surface sealing material is EV
A white color that does not interfere with the coloring color of A is preferable. In addition, a transparent weather-resistant film, for example, a transparent PET / metal / PET laminated film may be used as the opaque back surface sealing material 6 so as to exhibit a metal color. At this time, as the metal, aluminum, silver, gold, galvanized steel sheet or the like is used.
The frame of the solar cell module is preferably made of aluminum in view of the fact that it is commonly used and the cost, and the aluminum frame 12 is also used in this embodiment. After the opening 10 is formed, a colored resist or paint may be applied on the back electrode layer 4 and in the opening 10. At this time, as a coating method, a spray method, a roll coater, or a printing method can be used.

By the way, without using the pattern mask 14, the line width of the opening 10 is 25 μm and 50 μm on the glass substrate.
μm, 75 μm, 100 μm, 125 μm, 150 μm, 2
A thin-film solar cell module was fabricated by laser processing so as to have a thickness of 00 μm, 300 μm, and 400 μm, and using black PET / aluminum / PET as the opaque back sealing material 6 except that black PET / aluminum / PET was used. As a result, it was 75 μm or more that black was confirmed in the opening 10. In order to confirm the coloring of the opening 10 more clearly,
It was 50 μm or more. Based on the results of this experiment, the opening 10
Is preferably 75 μm or more, more preferably 15 μm or more.
It was found that the thickness should be 0 μm or more. Furthermore, even when the opening 10 was formed in a discontinuous shape such as a rectangle or a circle, the colored color on the back side could be recognized if the shorter length (diameter) was 75 μm or more.

Embodiment 2 FIG. 5 is a front view of a thin-film solar cell module according to Embodiment 2. In the first embodiment, the characters are displayed using the pattern mask 14 and the linear openings 10 in the character portion are formed so as to have the same width. Are used in combination with linear openings 10 having different widths. Specifically, 15
Assuming that cm is a region under one processing condition, the opening 10 is 100 μm wide in the region 25a and 500 μm in the region 25b.
Width, 150 μm width in region 25c, 30 in region 25d
It was manufactured to have a width of 0 μm. At this time, the same aperture ratio was set in each of the regions 25a to 25d having different line widths. Others are the same as the first embodiment. In this example, by changing the width of the straight line, a thin film solar cell module having a stripe pattern as a whole could be manufactured.

Embodiment 3 FIG. 6 is a front view of a thin-film solar cell module according to Embodiment 3. Without using the pattern mask 14, the width of about 5 cm is set as one processing condition area, the width of the straight line of the opening 10 is fixed to 400 μm, the area 15a of the 1 mm line distance, and the area of the 2 mm line distance. 1
A region 15c having a distance between straight lines of 5b and 4mm and a region 15d having a distance between straight lines of 8mm were prepared. Others are the same as the first embodiment. By changing the distance between the straight lines, a thin-film solar cell module having a gradation design that looks whitish in a region where the distance between the straight lines is short and red-brown in a region where the distance between the straight lines is long could be manufactured.

Embodiment 4 FIG. 7 is a front view of a thin-film solar cell module according to Embodiment 4. Without using the pattern mask 14, the opening 10 was processed by laser so that the shape of the opening 10 became a circle having a diameter of about 175 μm, and the aperture ratio was set to about 30%. Others are the same as the first embodiment. By doing so, the entire surface of the thin-film solar cell module became more whitish. In this embodiment, the shape of the opening 10 is a circle, but may be an ellipse, a rectangle, a square, or the like, and these shapes may be appropriately combined. Further, even if such a shape is combined with a straight line, the taste may be different.

<Embodiment 5> Without using the pattern mask 14, the width of the straight line of the opening 10 was 400 μm, the distance between the straight lines was 1.13 mm, and black PET / aluminum / PET was used as the opaque back sealing material 6. 56 thin-film solar cell modules 16 using the laminated film of
The width of the straight line 0 is 400 μm, and the distance between the straight lines is 1.13 mm.
However, as the opaque back surface sealing material 6, white PET
178 thin-film solar cell modules 17 using a laminated film of / aluminum / PET were produced. The configuration of these thin-film solar cell modules is otherwise the same as in the first embodiment. Then, these thin-film solar battery modules 16 and 17 were arranged in a 13 × 18 array as shown in FIG. 8, and thin-film solar battery panels having an array configuration were installed.
In the example shown in FIG. 8, the thin-film solar cell panel displays the characters ABC on the front side.

<Embodiment 6> Without using the pattern mask 14, the width of the straight line of the opening was fixed at 400 μm, the number of straight lines was changed, and the thin-film solar cell module 18 having an opening ratio of 0% was obtained. Is a 15% thin-film solar cell module 1
9. 52, 104 and 52 thin film solar cell modules 20 having an aperture ratio of 30% were produced, respectively. The configuration of these thin-film solar cell modules is otherwise the same as in the first embodiment. Then, the thin film solar cell modules 18 to 20 manufactured in this manner were arranged in a 13 × 16 array as shown in FIG. 9 and thin film solar cell panels arranged in an array were installed. In the example shown in FIG. 9, the thin-film solar cell panel displays a stripe pattern on the surface side by gradation color display.

<Example 7> As the opaque back surface sealing material 6, a material in which the color of PET was red and white was used.
Also, without using the pattern mask 14, the number of the openings 10 was changed to produce thin-film solar cell modules having an aperture ratio of 5, 10, 15, and 30%, respectively. The configuration of these thin-film solar cell modules is otherwise the same as in the first embodiment. Twenty thin film solar cell modules 21 with an aperture ratio of 30% and red PET color and twenty thin film solar cell modules 22 with a 10% aperture ratio and red PET color are used.
110 thin-film solar battery modules 23 with 30% aperture ratio and white PET color, 60 thin-film solar battery modules 24 with 15% aperture ratio and white PET color, 5 aperture ratio
As shown in FIG. 10, a total of 240 thin-film solar cell modules 25 with a white PET color of 30% were used.
A solar cell panel arranged in an array of × 16 was arranged. In the example shown in FIG. 10, the solar cell panel displays a symbol (と) and a stripe pattern on the front surface side.

By the way, in Embodiments 6 and 7,
A solar cell array, that is, a solar cell panel is constituted by using several types of thin film solar cells having different aperture ratios. Since the operating current of a thin-film solar cell integrating cells changes in proportion to the area of a single cell, thin-film solar cells with different aperture ratios have the same operating current according to the aperture ratio when the number of integrated stages is equal. different. Therefore, when thin-film solar cells having different aperture ratios are connected in series, the operating point of each thin-film solar cell deviates from the maximum operating point. Therefore, in a solar cell panel in which a large number of thin film solar cell modules having different aperture ratios are arranged in the vertical and horizontal directions, in order to obtain the maximum power of each thin film solar cell, the thin film solar cell modules having the same aperture ratio are obtained. Are optimally connected in series, and thin film solar cell modules having different aperture ratios are connected in parallel.

As shown in FIG. 11, thin-film solar cell modules 31, 32, and 33 having different aperture ratios can be arranged freely in the vertical and horizontal directions. Are connected in series, and the solar cell module group 41 (three solar cell modules 3
1, 31, 31 are connected to each other by a wiring 26),
Solar cell module group 42 (three solar cell modules 32, 32, 32 connected by wiring 26)
And a solar cell module group 43 (three solar cell modules 33, 33, 33 are connected to each other by the wiring 26), and these are connected in parallel. In this manner, a thin-film solar cell panel that can freely display characters, patterns, and the like can be provided.

Although the thin-film solar cell panels of Examples 6 and 7 were manufactured using only the thin-film solar cell module having the opening 10, the conventional thin-film solar cell module having no opening 10 (opening) (Rate 0%).

<Eighth Embodiment> In the solar cell module of the eighth embodiment, EVA / transparent PET / EVA / aluminum foil (with gloss) / EVA / PET were prepared in order of opaque back sealing material 6, and vacuum lamination was performed. The device was used to adhere to the thin-film solar cell 11a. With such a structure, the aluminum foil is wrinkled during lamination, so that light can be irregularly reflected and bubbles can be prevented from being mixed at the interface between the PET and the aluminum foil. The eighth embodiment is otherwise the same as the first embodiment. By irregularly reflecting, the character part representing XYZ became clearer. In particular, the effect is enhanced in a place where sunlight is exposed outdoors.
In addition, aluminum foil that does not diffusely reflect photocurrent (with gloss)
Was improved by about 2% on average compared with the case of using.

Although aluminum is used as the metal in the back surface sealing material 6, silver, chromium, gold or the like may be used. However, aluminum is preferable in consideration of cost and reflectance. Further, a laminated film of a weather-resistant film processed into a lattice shape may be used as a material for irregular reflection. For example, a PET film or a fluorine-based film may be used. At this time, P
The color of ET is preferably white with high reflectance. Also, needless to say, the above effects can be obtained when a plurality of thin film solar cell modules of Example 8 are arranged to form a thin film solar cell panel.

In Examples 1 to 8, the photoelectric conversion layers have a single structure, but may have a stacked structure such as a tandem structure or a triple structure. Also, the drawings showing the above embodiments are schematic views, and it goes without saying that the effects (design) of the present invention are clearer in actual thin-film solar cell modules and thin-film solar cell panels.

[0044]

As is clear from the above, according to the present invention, the color displayed through the opening formed in the thin-film solar cell can be arbitrarily changed, and the shape or opening of the opening can be changed. By changing the aperture ratio of each part, it is possible to change the color tone even for the same color, so that it can be harmonized with the surrounding environment, soften the eyes of people, and signboards for advertisements and advertisements (company A multifunctional thin-film solar cell module and a thin-film solar cell panel with a display function that can be modified in various ways such as a name, a logo, and a city symbol mark can be realized. Further, the present invention can be applied to a solar cell mounted on a battery charger or the like of a mobile phone to display the name of the owner or the like. Therefore, the application of the present invention is diversified, and the utility value is high.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of one embodiment of a thin-film solar cell module according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view taken along line II-II of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view taken along line III-III of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a view showing a pattern mask used when manufacturing the thin-film solar cell module.

FIG. 5 is a schematic front view of another embodiment of the thin-film solar cell module according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic front view of another embodiment of the thin-film solar cell module according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic front view of still another embodiment of the thin-film solar cell module according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic front view of one embodiment of the thin-film solar cell panel according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a schematic front view of another embodiment of the thin-film solar cell panel according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a schematic front view of still another embodiment of the thin-film solar cell panel according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method of connecting a thin-film solar cell module in one embodiment of the thin-film solar cell panel according to the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a schematic sectional view illustrating a structure of a thin-film solar cell using a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Transparent insulating substrate 2: Transparent conductive film 3: Photoelectric conversion layer 4: Back electrode layer 5: Adhesive material 6: Opaque back sealing material 7: Separation line of transparent conductive film 8: Separation line of photoelectric conversion layer 9 : Separation line of back electrode layer 10: Opening 11 a: Thin film solar cell 11: Laminate including thin film solar cell 12: Aluminum frame 13: Character part 14: Pattern mask 18 to 23, 31 to 33: Thin film solar cell module 26 :wiring

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Katsushi Kishimoto 22-22, Nagaikecho, Abeno-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka Inside Sharp Co., Ltd. (72) Katsuhiko Nomoto 22-22 Nagaikecho, Abeno-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka F term (reference) 5F051 AA05 BA03 BA11 DA04 EA09 EA10 EA16 FA03 GA03 JA02 JA04 JA08 JA20

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A transparent electrode layer, a photoelectric conversion layer, and a back electrode layer are laminated on a transparent insulating substrate in this order, and at least one of the transparent electrode layer, the photoelectric conversion layer, and the back electrode layer is in contact with the back electrode layer. A thin-film solar cell having one or more openings penetrating the photoelectric conversion layer, and an opaque back sealing material provided on the opposite side to the light-receiving surface of the thin-film solar cell, viewed from the light-receiving surface side A thin-film solar cell module, wherein the opening sometimes exhibits a desired color. 2. The thin-film solar cell module according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the openings are provided, and the openings are combined to form a pattern. 3. The thin-film solar cell module according to claim 1, wherein the width of the opening is 75 μm or more. 4. The thin-film solar cell module according to claim 1, wherein each of the openings has a linear shape or a discontinuous shape. 5. The thin film solar cell module according to claim 1, wherein an area ratio of the opening to an effective light receiving area of the thin film solar cell is 50% or less. 6. The color of the opening is the color of the opaque back sealing material, the color of an adhesive for bonding the back sealing material to the back electrode layer, or the color of the back electrode layer and the opening. 2. The thin-film solar cell module according to claim 1, wherein the color is a color of a colored resist film or a paint applied in the part. 7. The thin-film solar cell module according to claim 1, further comprising means for irregularly reflecting light on a side opposite to the light receiving surface. 8. A thin film solar cell panel formed by arranging a plurality of thin film solar cell modules, wherein at least a part of the plurality of thin film solar cell modules is the thin film according to any one of claims 1 to 7. A thin-film solar cell panel, which is a solar cell module. 9. A pattern is displayed on the front side by combining thin film solar cell modules in which the area ratio of the opening to the effective light receiving area of the thin film solar cell is different in a range of 0 to 50%. 2. The thin-film solar cell panel according to 1. 10. A thin film solar cell in which thin film solar cell modules having the same area ratio of the opening to the effective light receiving area of the thin film solar cell are connected in series, and the area ratio of the opening to the effective light receiving area of the thin film solar cell is different. The thin-film solar cell panel according to claim 9, wherein the modules are connected in parallel. 11. The thin-film solar cell panel according to claim 8, wherein a pattern is displayed on the front side using thin-film solar cell modules having different colors of the openings.