Patent ID: 7795527

Claim:
A solar cell module, comprising: a base board having a bottom surface and a top surface, the bottom surface being flat; a photoelectric converter on the base board and including a lower surface facing the top surface of the base board and a light-incident side surface; a surface covering material that covers the light-incident side surface of the photoelectric converter, the surface covering material having a bottom surface contacting the photoelectric converter and a top surface opposite to the bottom surface, the top surface being shaped to form trenches and projected portions, each projected portion being disposed between two adjacent trenches, each trench having a trench bottom and trench sides, a distance from the bottom surface to the projected portions of the top surface being greater than a distance from the bottom surface to the trench bottom; wherein, when the solar cell module is mounted to a surface that is tilted to a horizontal plane, each trench extends in a single direction that is approximately in parallel to the horizontal plane, wherein the trenches are arranged approximately in parallel to each other in the light-incident side surface, wherein each trench, taken from a plan view of the solar cell module having a first edge and a second edge opposite to the first edge, extends from a region adjacent to the first edge to a region adjacent to the opposite second edge without discontinuity, wherein each projected portion, taken from a plan view of the solar cell module, extends from the first edge to the opposite second edge without discontinuity between two adjacent trenches, and wherein each trench, taken from the plan view of the solar cell module, includes narrow sections and wide sections, the narrow sections having a width narrower than a width of the wide sections in a direction perpendicular to said single direction, the narrow sections and the wide sections being arranged alternately in said single direction.