Patent ID: 8003882

Claim:
A photovoltaic roofing system comprising: a back sheet comprising a length, L, a width, W, and a thickness, T, said back sheet comprising an overlap portion extending along length L having a width, W o and an active portion extending along length L having a width, W A ; a photovoltaic cell formed on a surface of said active portion, said photovoltaic cell comprising a photovoltaic member electrically responsive to an absorption of photons, a negative electrode coupled to a surface of said photovoltaic member, a positive electrode coupled to said surface of said photovoltaic member, a back field layer coupled to said surface of said photovoltaic member and comprising a first plurality of openings defined therein for use in coupling said photovoltaic member surface to said negative electrode and a second plurality of openings defined therein for use in coupling said photovoltaic member surface to said positive electrode, and a dielectric layer coupled to said back field layer and comprising a third plurality of openings defined therein and a fourth plurality of openings defined therein, said third plurality of openings substantially aligned with said first plurality of openings, said fourth plurality of openings substantially aligned with said second plurality of openings, wherein said thickness T is selected such that thickness T plus a thickness of the photoelectric cell substantially match a thickness of a proximate non-photovoltaic roofing member when said photovoltaic roofing system is installed; and a plug connection coupled to an upper surface of said back sheet, said plug connection for electrically coupling said photovoltaic cell to another photovoltaic cell.