Patent Publication Number: US-2012023842-A1

Title: Photovoltaic Panel Wall

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application claims the benefit of the filing date under 35 U.S.C. §119(a)-(d) of Chinese Patent Application No. 201010244485.0 filed on Aug. 2, 2010. 
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention relates to a Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) technology, and more particularly, relates to a photovoltaic panel wall mounted on a building frame. 
     BACKGROUND 
     With the development of the photovoltaic industry, the Building Integrated Photovoltaic technology applied to various solar products on the building has been proposed as, for example, as a photovoltaic panel wall mounted on the building frame. 
     The photovoltaic panel wall is mounted on the building frame and constitutes a part of the wall of the building. Because modern buildings are often tall and large, it is very difficult for an operator to assemble the large photovoltaic panel wall on the tall and large buildings with high accuracy. Generally, in consideration of facilitating the installation operation and improving the installation accuracy, the photovoltaic panel wall consists of a plurality of small photovoltaic assembly units that can be removably assembled on the building frame. Accordingly, the operator can assemble only one small photovoltaic assembly unit on the building frame each time, instead of assembling the whole large photovoltaic panel wall on the building frame at once. In addition, after being mounted on the building frame, the plurality of small photovoltaic assembly units need to be electrically connected with each other to constitute a whole photovoltaic panel wall or a complete photovoltaic system. 
     Unfortunately, so far, inventors of the present application have not found a suitable solution to achieve a simple and quick electrical connection between the photovoltaic assembly units in the prior art. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a photovoltaic panel wall which can achieve a simple and quick electrical connection between the photovoltaic assembly units. 
     SUMMARY 
     The present invention has been made to overcome or alleviate at least one aspect of the above mentioned disadvantages. 
     According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a photovoltaic panel wall mounted on a building frame and comprising at least two photovoltaic assembly units. Each of the at least two photovoltaic assembly units comprises an electrical connector having a male terminal and a female terminal that are configured to be detachably engaged. An opening is formed in the building frame, and one of the male and female terminals of the electrical connector is fixed in the opening. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying figures of which: 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view which shows a part of a photovoltaic panel wall according to an embodiment of the invention; and 
         FIG. 2  is a perspective view which shows an electrical connector of a photovoltaic assembly unit mounted on the building frame according to an embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION 
     The embodiments of the invention will be described hereinafter in detail with reference to the attached drawings, wherein the like reference numerals refer to the like elements. The present disclosure may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiment set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that the present disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. 
     In an embodiment of the present invention, the photovoltaic panel wall may comprise two or more photovoltaic assembly units, although only two photovoltaic assembly units are shown in the embodiment of  FIG. 1 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 1 , the photovoltaic panel wall comprises a first photovoltaic assembly unit and a second photovoltaic assembly unit. The first photovoltaic assembly unit comprises a first electrical connector  10  and a first photovoltaic glass block  71 . Similarly, the second photovoltaic assembly unit comprises a second electrical connector  20  and a second photovoltaic glass block  72 . 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , the first electrical connector  10  is electrically connected to the first photovoltaic glass block  71  via a first cable  11 . Similarly, the second electrical connector  20  is electrically connected to the second photovoltaic glass block  72  via a second cable  21 . The first electrical connector  10  is electrically connected to the second electrical connector  20  via a third cable  12 . In this way, the first photovoltaic assembly unit is electrically connected with the second photovoltaic assembly unit. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 1  again, wherein the first electrical connector  10  has a male terminal  10   a  electrically connected to the first cable  11  and a female terminal  10   b  electrically connected to one end of the third cable  12 . The male terminal  10   a  and the female terminal  10   b  of the first electrical connector  10  are configured to be removably engaged with each other. Similarly, the second electrical connector  20  has a male terminal  20   a  electrically connected to the second cable  21  and a female terminal  20   b  electrically connected to the other end of the third cable  12 . The male terminal  20   a  and the female terminal  20   b  of the second electrical connector  20  are configured to be removably engaged with each other. 
     For the convenience of manufacture and assembly, in an embodiment of the invention, all photovoltaic assembly units constituting the photovoltaic panel wall have the same structure. But, the present invention is not limited to this, photovoltaic assembly units may have different structures. 
       FIG. 2  shows the first electrical connector  10  of the first photovoltaic assembly unit mounted on the building frame  30  according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
     As shown in  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 2 , an opening  31  is formed in the building frame  30 , the female terminals  10   b  of the first electrical connector  10  is inserted into the opening  31  and is secured on the building frame  30  so as to fix the female terminals  10   b  in the opening  31 . In this embodiment of the invention, because the female terminals  10   b  of the first electrical connector  10  is fixed and can not move, the male terminal  10   a  of the first electrical connector  10  can be easily aimed at the female terminals  10   b  and inserted into or pulled out of the female terminals  10   b.    
     In the embodiment shown in  FIG. 2 , the female terminal  10   b  is fixed in the opening  31  of the building frame  30 . But, please be noted that the terminal fixed in the opening  31  may be any one of the male terminal  10   a  and the female terminal  10   b  of the first electrical connector  10 . For example, the male terminal  10   a  is fixed in the opening  31  and the female terminal  10   b  is not fixed. 
     Similarly, as shown in  FIG. 1 , another opening  32  is formed in the building frame  30 . The female terminals  20   b  of the second electrical connector  20  are inserted into the opening  32  and secured on the building frame  30  so as to fix the female terminals  20   b  in the opening  32 . 
     In an embodiment of  FIG. 1 , the openings  31  and  32  both are formed in the rear side wall of the building frame  30  facing the inner of the building. But the present invention is not limited to this, the openings  31  and  32  may be formed in other side wall of the building frame  30 , such as the left side wall or the right side wall. 
     As shown in  FIG. 2 , the female terminal  10   b  of the first electrical connector  10  has two wings  13 ,  13  extending from a periphery of the female terminal  10   b . When the female terminal  10   b  is inserted into the opening  31  of the building frame  30 , the two wings  13 ,  13  of the female terminal  10   b  are secured on the building frame  30  by, for example, screws  6 . In this way, the female terminal  10   b  of the first electrical connector  10  is fixed in the opening  31 . 
     Please be noted that the female terminal  10   b  of the first electrical connector  10  may be fixed in the opening  31  of the building frame  30  by other ways, such as by snapping or adhering. 
     Referring to  FIG. 1  again, in an embodiment of the present invention, the photovoltaic panel wall totally comprises three layers from the outside to the inside. The first layer is a photovoltaic glass layer  7  located at outmost of the photovoltaic panel wall, and the second and third layers are two normal glass layers  8  and  9 . In order to improve the sound and thermal insulation effect, the three glass layers  7 ,  8  and  9  may be arranged to form an air gap between two adjacent layers thereof. 
     Please note that the structure of the photovoltaic panel wall of the invention is not limited to the embodiment shown in  FIG. 1 , the photovoltaic panel wall may comprises two or more layers of photovoltaic glasses, or comprise one, three or more layers of normal glasses. 
     In the invention, the term ‘photovoltaic glass’ means such a glass product that can collect the solar energy and convert the solar energy into the electrical energy. The photovoltaic glass of the present invention may adopt any one of commercially available photovoltaic glass products. For brevity, description of these commercially available photovoltaic glass products is omitted herein. 
     The whole photovoltaic glass layer  7  of the photovoltaic panel wall consists of photovoltaic glass blocks of the plurality of photovoltaic assembly units. As shown in  FIG. 1 , in an embodiment, the photovoltaic glass layer  7  consists of the first photovoltaic glass block  71  of the first photovoltaic assembly unit and the second photovoltaic glass block  72  of the second photovoltaic assembly unit. Similarly, the normal glass layers  8 ,  9  each consist of normal glass blocks of the plurality of photovoltaic assembly units. Therefore, in order to prevent dust or dirt from entering into the building through the gap between the glass blocks, elastic seals  4 ,  5  are provided to seal the gap between the glass blocks. With this feature, it also can prevent the outer strong wind from blowing into the building and generating annoying noise. 
     As shown in  FIG. 1 , the three layers of glasses  7 ,  8 ,  9  are sandwiched and held in the building frame  30 . But the present invention is not limited to this, the three layers of glasses  7 ,  8 ,  9  may be adhered on the building frame  30 . 
     In various embodiments of the present invention, by forming the opening in the building frame and fixing one of the male and female terminals of the electrical connector in the opening, the other of the male and female terminal of the electrical connector can be simply inserted into the one terminal. In this way, a plurality of photovoltaic assembly units can be simply and quickly electrically connected together or detached from each other. 
     Although several embodiments have been shown and described, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes or modifications may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the disclosure, the scope of which is defined in the claims and their equivalents. It should be noted that the term “comprising” does not exclude other elements or steps and the “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality. It should also be noted that reference signs in the claims shall not be construed as limiting the scope of the claims.