Patent ID: 8826607

Claim:
A photovoltaic roofing element comprising a roofing substrate having a visible region having a down-roof edge and two lateral edges; an encapsulated photovoltaic element having a top surface, the encapsulated photovoltaic element comprising: a backing layer, a colored or patterned film disposed on top of the backing layer; one or more photovoltaic cells disposed on top of the colored or patterned film, each photovoltaic cell having a photovoltaically-active surface, each of the one or more photovoltaic cells comprising two electrically-conductive electrode layers with a photovoltaic material disposed between them; and an encapsulant layer disposed over the photovoltaic cells and the colored or patterned film; wherein the colored or patterned film is visible in the area surrounding the one or more photovoltaic cells, and the encapsulated photovoltaic element being disposed on top of the visible region of the roofing substrate such that the backing layer is disposed between the colored or patterned film and the roofing substrate, and the one or more photovoltaic cells are disposed between the encapsulant later and the backing layer, such that the photovoltaically-active surfaces of the photovoltaic cells face the top surface of the encapsulated photovoltaic element, the encapsulated photovoltaic element not extending to the edges of the visible region of the roofing substrate.