2410 results about "Cell panel" patented technology

Systems and materials to improve photovoltaic cell efficiency by implementing a self-cleaning function on photovoltaic cells and on albedo surfaces associated with photovoltaic cell assemblies are provided. Materials for protecting albedo surfaces that surround photovoltaic cell assemblies, thereby maximizing energy input into the photovoltaic cell assemblies, are provided. Materials for self-cleaning photovoltaic cell panels, thereby maintaining their efficiency, are provided. Portable albedo collecting devices associated with photovoltaic cell assemblies are provided.

A lightweight photovoltaic concentrator is disclosed. The concentrator comprises at least two sections each comprising a cell panel, a radiator panel and a reflector panel. In one embodiment, the concentrator system of the present invention comprises at least two hinged sections each comprising a solar cell panel, a flat radiator panel, and a curved reflective concentrator panel. The solar cell panel comprises at least one photovoltaic cell for generating electrical power in response to radiation. The solar cell panel is aligned with the radiator panel at an angle less than 180 degrees but not less than 90 degrees facing the reflective concentrator panel. In another embodiment, the cell panels on adjoining sections are angled in opposite directions with respect to the radiator panels and wherein the reflective concentrator panels are located on opposite sides of the radiator panels. A heat pipe or loop heat pipe is located in the radiator panel to dissipate heat from the solar cells.

A cell panel for thermal ventilation including a first wall having raised portions which define openings; a second wall; partition walls connected to the first and second walls and that define cells. The openings in the first wall are located upstream of an air flow flowing outside the first wall. The first wall may further include raised portions which define other openings located downstream of the air flow. The second wall may also include raised portions which define openings located downstream of the air flow. The partition walls may define communication holes between adjacent cells.

A filtration apparatus for filtering liquid has a filtration cell having generally vertical front and rear panels spaced apart to define a cell length, and generally vertical side panels extending between the front and rear panels and spaced apart to define a cell width. A plurality of header segments are provided in the cell, each header segment having a permeate channel. A plurality of hollow fiber membranes are associated with each header segment and extend generally upright between the cell panels, each membrane having a lumen in flow communication with the permeate channel of the associated header segment and a lower end secured to the associated header segment and a loose upper end.

There is provided a connecting member capable of eliminating displacement between ends, preventing a cost of installation from increasing and making the appearance of an installed photovoltaic cell module excellent only by being attached to the ends of predetermined members such as the photovoltaic cell module and a decorative cover.A connecting member 10 for connecting ends of adjacently arranged photovoltaic cell modules 4 fixed in a state in which the ends of the photovoltaic cell modules 4 each obtained by supporting an outer periphery of a photovoltaic cell panel 2 by frame bodies 3a and 3b are floating, including a plate-like upper piece 11, a plate-like lower piece 12 opposed to the upper piece 11 and a connecting piece 13 for connecting end sides on the same side of the lower piece 12 and the upper piece 11, the connecting member 10 capable of being fitted to the ends of the frame bodies 3a facing the same direction in the adjacent photovoltaic cell modules 4 so as to sandwich the same from a direction perpendicular thereto by the upper piece 11 and the lower piece 12.

The invention relates to a large-scale photovoltaic power station inspection device based on double cameras carried on an unmanned aerial vehicle. The large-scale photovoltaic power station inspection device is mainly characterized in that a lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle or an unmanned system is used for performing inspection on the large-scale photovoltaic power station; and furthermore a thermal infrared imager and a visible light camera as detecting tools are mounted on the unmanned aerial vehicle for detecting a photovoltaic cell panel. An infrared image and a visible light image which are acquired by the double cameras are processed by a computer through an algorithm, thereby obtaining a conclusion whether the fault of the photovoltaic cell panel occurs. Furthermore a man-machine interaction interface is designed for displaying the image, the conclusion, etc. Compared with an existing fault monitoring method of the photovoltaic cell panel, the large-scale photovoltaic power station inspection device has advantages of improving reliability of a monitoring result, reducing manpower and physical resource, improving cost benefit, reducing work hour and realizing detection for invisible faults in the photovoltaic cell panel.

The invention provides a photovoltaic power generation system and control method. The photovoltaic power generation system comprises photovoltaic cells and an inversion device which is electrically connected with the photovoltaic cells and is used for converting direct currents generated by the photovoltaic cells to alternating currents, and further comprises a PID circuit, an insulation resistance detection device and a control unit. On the one hand, because first insulation resistance between the positive electrode of photovoltaic cells array and the ground and second insulation resistance between the negative electrode of the photovoltaic cell array and the ground are respectively detected by the insulation resistance detection device and faults can be detected before the whole photovoltaic power generation system operates, the photovoltaic power generation system solves the problem that safety can not be determined because the negative electrode is grounded, and accordingly the insulation state of a negative-electrode cable or the insulation state of a cell panel negative-electrode end can not be determined, and the cell electrodes is grounded and the PID phenomenon is successively eliminated on the other hand.

The invention discloses an organic carrier for conductive silver paste applied to a front face electrode and a grid line of a solar cell, a preparation method of the organic carrier, silver paste containing the organic carrier and a solar cell manufactured from the silver paste. The organic carrier comprises the following components in percentage by weight: 60-75 percent of solvent, 1-10 percent of thickener, 0.3-5 percent of thixotropic agent, 1-5 percent of surfactant and 10-30 percent of plasticizer. The preparation method of the organic carrier comprises the following steps of: weighing various raw materials; adding various aids into a solvent respectively; and heating and stirring until the aids are dissolved completely. The organic carrier has proper viscosity and a simple preparation process. Paste prepared from the organic carrier has proper viscosity, fineness, leveling property, thixotropy and chemical stability. After the paste is subjected to screen printing and sintering on a cell substrate, the thicknesses of a front face electrode and a grid line thick film of a cell panel can be over 20 micros, and the prepared electrode and the grid line thick film can obtain a higher height-width ratio.

A multi-display apparatus includes a thin film encapsulating structure to prevent moisture penetration through sides of the encapsulating structure. Each of a plurality of unit panels of the multi-display apparatus includes a substrate, a display device formed on the substrate, an organic material layer formed on the substrate to bury the display device, an inorganic material layer stacked on the organic material layer, and a moisture barrier wall that is formed outside the display device on the substrate and has a height greater than a thickness of the organic material layer. The multi-display apparatus having a thin film encapsulating structure can realize a stable, smooth, and large image screen since the thin film encapsulating structure can reduce a width of seams between the unit panels and can prevent moisture penetration.

The invention discloses a self-navigation full-automatic cleaning device for a photovoltaic cell panel. The device has the full-automatic functions of automatically navigating travelling, automatically regulating a cleaning state, automatically selecting a cleaning mode and automatically charging an accumulator. The load-bearing trolley of the device realizes the automatic travelling function of a fixed route by utilizing a self-navigation sensing system and detecting characteristic markers previously placed on site; the lifting platform, telescopic link, brush roller bracket and fixed bearing of the device can completely substitute for the design of a mechanical arm to realize the automatic real-time control of the angle height of the brush roller bracket and realize the function of automatically regulating the cleaning state according to pressure sensing data; a photoelectric sensing system can feed back the dust dirty degree of the surface of the photovoltaic cell panel in real time so as to regulate the travelling speed of the load-bearing trolley and the rotation speed of a brush roller and determine whether a water spray cleaning mode is adopted or not. The self-navigation full-automatic cleaning device disclosed by the invention is simple in structure, can not only save the cost, but also increase the cleaning efficiency, and is very suitable for large-area popularization and usage.

The invention belongs to the field of photovoltaic power generation, applies a power decoupling circuit to reduce the capacity of a capacitor at the side of a DC (Direct Current) bus for prolonging the service life and improving the reliability of the inverter, replaces an electrolytic capacitor with high capacity and a short service life with a thin film capacitor with low capacity and a long service life and designs a miniature photovoltaic grid-connected inverter. To fulfill the aims, the invention adopts the technical scheme that the miniature photovoltaic grid-connected inverter with an optimized DC bus capacitor comprises a main circuit and a control and driving circuit, wherein the main circuit is formed by a photovoltaic cell panel, a phase-shift full-bridge circuit, a high frequency transformer, a full-bridge rectifying circuit, the DC bus capacitor, the power decoupling circuit and an inverter circuit which are sequentially connected; the control and driving circuit comprises a photovoltaic output current sampling circuit, a photovoltaic output voltage sampling circuit, a power MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) driving circuit, a capacitor voltage sampling circuit, a grid-connected current sampling circuit, a phase-locked loop circuit and a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) controller. The miniature photovoltaic grid-connected inverter is mainly applied to photovoltaic power generation.

A method for fabricating a photovoltaic (PV) cell panel wherein all PV cells are formed simultaneously on a two-dimensional array of monocrystalline silicon mother wafers affixed to a susceptor is disclosed. Porous silicon separation layers are anodized in the surfaces of the mother wafers. The porous film is then smoothed to form a suitable surface for epitaxial film growth. An epitaxial reactor is used to grow n- and p-type films forming the PV cell structures. Contacts to the n- and p-layers are deposited, followed by gluing of a glass layer to the PV cell array. The porous silicon film is then separated by exfoliation in a peeling motion across all the cells attached together above, followed by attaching a strengthening layer on the PV cell array. The array of mother wafers may be reused multiple times, thereby reducing materials costs for the completed solar panels.

The invention discloses a high-efficient solar photovoltaic cell heat dissipating device and an electricity and heat cogeneration system, which relates to the solar utilization technology. The high-efficient solar photovoltaic cell heat dissipating device is used for the heat dissipation of a solar photovoltaic cell panel. The high-efficient solar photovoltaic cell heat dissipating device is characterized in that the device comprises a flat heat pipe and a tube-on-sheet heat exchanger; the flat heat pipe comprises a front panel and a rear panel; the front panel is directly or indirectly clung to the backboard of the cell panel and covers the whole backboard of the cell panel; the tube-on-sheet heat exchanger is attached to the rear panel of the flat heat pipe; in case of having no influence on the combination of the cell panel and the building surface and of being used as building member, the high-efficient solar photovoltaic cell heat dissipating device can rapidly transfer away the heat of the cell panel, which is rapidly absorbed by a heat absorption plane of the flat heat pipe, from a through pipe by a cooling medium, i.e. water or antifreeze solution and the like, through the tube-on-sheet heat exchanger so as to effectively prevent the temperature rise of the cell panel; and the high-efficient solar photovoltaic cell heat dissipating device can also form the electricity and heat cogeneration system to effectively utilize the transferred heat to output hot water so as to sufficiently improve the solar utilization efficiency and reduce the cost of the solar photovoltaic industry.

The invention relates to a photovoltaic power station automatic inspection system based on an unmanned aerial vehicle. The system is used for monitoring real-time operation condition of a photovoltaicpower station and detecting whether problems such as contamination and hot spots exist in a photovoltaic cell panel or not. The system comprises the unmanned aerial vehicle, a route design module, anonboard module, an image processing module, a communication module, a fault reconfirmation module and a ground workstation. The route design module is used for planning an inspection route of the unmanned aerial vehicle. The onboard module is composed of a camera and an infrared thermal imager and is used for collecting real-time images, pictures and thermal images of a photovoltaic module. The communication module is used for transmitting real-time data back to the ground workstation and receiving control instructions. The image processing module is used for processing image data and judgeswhether a fault exists in the photovoltaic cell panel or not. The fault reconfirmation module is used for carrying out fault reconfirmation on a suspected fault module, thereby preventing misjudgment.According to the system, the photovoltaic power station is automatically inspected, inspection efficiency is effectively improved, cost investment is reduced, and a fault point is discovered rapidly.

The invention aims at providing an electricity generation ship capable of comprehensively utilizing renewable energy sources. The electricity generation ship comprises a photovoltaic electricity generation cell panel, a wind electricity generation set and a hydro electricity generation set, and independent photovoltaic electricity generation, wind electricity generation and hydro electricity generation can be carried out. The photovoltaic electricity generation cell panel, the wind electricity generation set and the hydro electricity generation set can be connected into a chip power grid at the same time for grid-connected electricity generation. When the hydro electricity generation set participates in electricity generation, a ship body is generally fixed, and a nose faces water flow. When only the photovoltaic electricity generation cell panel and the wind electricity generation set carry out electricity generation, the ship can run. Offshore wind energy, solar energy and tidal current energy are used for electricity generation to guarantee electricity in the initial stage of development of islands, and the ship can run to various islands and offshore platforms badly in need of electric energy to provide electric energy. Therefore, compared with other ships, the electricity generation ship is remarkable in effect of energy saving and emission reduction, and the emission of greenhouse gases is reduced to a large degree.

The invention discloses a solar cell panel device capable of being put away. The solar cell panel comprises a cell panel, a frame, a bearing part, a lifting platform, a storage box body, a first motor and a lifting mechanism. The frame comprises a pair of slide rails which is transversely arranged in parallel, the bearing part is arranged on the pair of slide rails, the cell panel is arranged on a body of the bearing part, the lifting platform is arranged on one side of the frame and close to one ends of the pair of slide rails, the storage box body is provided with a space containing the bearing part and positioned under the lifting platform, the first motor is connected to a pair of pulleys of the bearing part and drives the bearing part to proceed from the frame to the lifting platform, and the lifting mechanism is connected to the lifting platform and drives the lifting platform to rise and fall to enter the space containing a frame body. The frame, the bearing part and the storage box body are designed for the solar cell panel device, and under driving of the first motor, the bearing part proceeds to the lifting platform and enters inside the storage box body along with the lifting platform, so that the cell panel is prevented from being affected by outside severe weather.

A solar collector panel is disclosed for heating of air, in which the conventional insulation material on the back panel facing away from the sun is replaced by a spacing between a permeable back panel and a permeable heat absorber means, so that a heat convection airflow through the back panel and into the interior of the solar energy panel against the temperature gradient prevents the convection heat loss in the opposite direction. The back panel also reduces the radiation heat loss from the heat absorber means. Furthermore, in case the flow of air through the solar energy panel is stopped, the convection-insulation will no longer be effective, and a photovoltaic cell panel placed within the solar energy panel and generating electricity from the solar radiation will not be subjected to the damaging high stagnation temperature of a traditionally insulated solar collector panel.

The invention relates to a photovoltaic panel monitoring and cleaning aerial robot system and a photovoltaic panel cleaning method. The system comprises a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle, a cleaning device, a monitoring device, a wireless transceiver, a GPS positioning device, a main controller and a remote controller, wherein the monitoring device is composed of a camera, a cradle head and a cradle head controller, the cleaning device is composed of a robot arm and an electric nozzle, a lithium battery, the wireless transceiver, an airborne antenna and the GPS positioning device are integrated on the tail portion, the lithium battery and the wireless transceiver are both connected with the main controller, and a flight remote control handle, a cleaning remote control handle and an LCD are arranged on the remote controller. The unmanned aerial vehicle airborne wireless telemetry technology and the cleaning robot arm are combined, the clean states of photovoltaic cell panels are monitored through the remote control device, the photovoltaic cell panels needing to be cleaned are cleaned with an airborne cleaning robot, targeting property is high, cleaning efficiency can be improved greatly, and a big problem in the photovoltaic industry is solved.

The invention relates to an automatic production line of a fuel cell stack. The automatic production line comprises a material taking and placing region, a stack lamination fastening region, a primaryperformance test region, an artificial assembly region, an artificial rework region, a part installation region, a secondary performance test region, a product off-line region, a manipulator and a control server, wherein the manipulator comprises a first manipulator, a second manipulator, a third manipulator, a fourth manipulator and a fifth manipulator, and the manipulators can slide along respective rails in a reciprocating way to take and place materials. In the automatic production line, a large part of production operation is completed by a mechanical program, high automation is achieved, modular and large-scale production of a fuel cell is easy to achieve, the continuity of production links is maintained, the production efficiency is substantially improved, the production cost is reduced, the automatic production line is suitable for producing different specifications of cell panels, is wide in application range and is flexible and simple to adjust, each production equipment isindependent, the production line is compact in layout, high in design flexibility, and compatibility, upgrading and transformation are easily achieved.

The invention provides a heat sink for a photovoltaic cell. The heat sink comprises a photovoltaic cell panel. The heat sink is characterized by further comprising one or a group of heat radiation plates, one side of the heat radiation plate is jointed with the back face of the photovoltaic cell panel, the heat radiation plate is a hollow structure the inside of which is provided with a large number of synclastic microporous tube groups or microflute groups and is filled with a working substance; each of the micropore or microflute naturally forms a micro heat tube structure; the side of the heat radiation plate which is jointed with the photovoltaic cell panel is a heat absorbent surface, and the other sides of the heat radiation plates are partially or fully heat radiation surfaces. The heat sink has the advantages of simple structure, low thermal resistance and convenient installation.

The invention discloses a method for measuring the efficiency of a photovoltaic power station system, and relates to the field of photovoltaic power generation equipment detection. The system comprises a photovoltaic cell panel, a miniature inverter, a DC meter, a data collector, a temperature collector, an intelligent analyzer (a PC), and a cloud platform part. The beneficial effects of the invention are that the detected photovoltaic cell panel is smaller in irradiance receiving error, and is convenient to correct; the method can calculate a PR value, and the PR value is more suitable for the basic condition of the power station; the method can achieve the correction and testing of the attenuation power of an online working photovoltaic cell panel under the conditions of the same irradiance and temperature, and saves time and labor; the method can carry out the intelligent analysis and comparison of the power of a clean photovoltaic cell panel and a normal photovoltaic cell panel under the conditions of the same irradiance and temperature, calculates the impact on the photovoltaic cell panel from dust sheltering, determines the optimal washing time, and carries the accumulative analysis of the impact on the photovoltaic panel power generation from environment temperature and the temperature of a photovoltaic back plate through comparing the environment temperature with the temperature of the photovoltaic back plate.

A connector arrangement connects the flat conductors that extend upwardly from a horizontal photovoltaic cell panel with the insulated conductors of a cable via the circuits of a printed circuit board, respectively. A flat conductor support member is adhesively secured to the upper surface of the horizontal photovoltaic cell panel and includes upwardly extending bridge portions having flat upper edges about which are reversely bent the upper free ends of the flat conductors. A hollow sectional connector housing includes a lower body section containing a bottom opening that receives the flat conductor support member when the lower body section is seated on the panel upper surface. Bifurcated resilient contacts mounted on the lower section have first portions that engage the bent flat conductor ends, respectively, and second portions that engage the circuits on a replaceable printed circuit board carried by the removable upper cover section of the housing.

A bumper beam energy absorbing system (10) is disclosed for absorbing impact energy exerted on an automotive vehicle. The energy absorbing system (10) includes a rigid, structural impact beam (12), a decorative fascia (16), and an energy absorber (14) sandwiched between the impact beam (12) and fascia (16). The impact beam (12) is adapted to attach the energy absorber to the vehicle while the fascia (16) decoratively covers and conceals the energy absorber (14). The energy absorber (14) is comprised of layers of cell panels (20). Each cell panel (20) is extruded into an open cell network in which interconnected closed loop cell walls define a plurality of open cells, thereby creating the network. The cross-section of the cells (22, 22′) in one cell panel may differ to adjust the amount of energy absorbed by a particular section of the panel. Likewise, the overall open cell network may vary between the layers, thereby adjusting the amount of energy absorbed by each particular layer.

The invention discloses a solar cell module with a water circulation cooling system. The solar cell module is provided with a solar cell panel and a cell panel mounting frame. The solar cell panel is fixed in the cell panel mounting frame; a panel covers the solar cell panel; a water tank is arranged beside the solar cell module; a water outlet pipeline of the water tank is connected with a water pump, and a water inlet pipeline thereof is connected with a collecting annulus; the collecting annulus is arranged below the cell panel mounting frame; a spray device used for spraying water to the panel is arranged on the cell panel mounting frame; and the spray device is connected with the water outlet pipeline of the water pump. By arranging the water circulation cooling system on the solar cell module, the solar cell panel can be effectively cooled while the solar cell module works, thus enhancing the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the solar cell and prolonging the service life of the solar cell panel.

The invention relates to a photovoltaic model establishment method applicable to the dynamic overall-process simulation of a power system. A photovoltaic generation module is modeled, a temperature factor and an illumination intensity factor in the medium and long-term process have the characteristics of fluctuation and indeterminacy, and an implementation method of a photovoltaic maximum power tracing model for the dynamic overall-process simulation of the power system is provided in consideration of the influence on photovoltaic generation caused by the change of the two factors. The photovoltaic maximum power tracing model adjusts the working voltage of a photovoltaic cell panel according to the volt-ampere characteristics of a photovoltaic power supply by using a maximum power point tracing control method, so that the photovoltaic cell panel can work in a maximum power output state, solar energy is utilized to the greatest extent, and the efficiency and performance of the photovoltaic generation are effectively improved. An inverter effectively controls the injection current of axes d and q by virtue of an inner ring current control loop and an outer ring current control loop, so that active power and reactive power can be controlled. The whole model meets requirements for electromechanical transient overall-process simulation and medium and long-term dynamic overall-process simulation of the power system.

The invention discloses a hot spot fault detection method for a photovoltaic cell panel, and belongs to the field of fault detection of a photovoltaic power generation system. The method comprises the steps: collecting infrared images in different hot spot fault states; carrying out the preprocessing and segmenting of the infrared images, and extracting a hot spot fault characteristic vector; training an SVM multi-fault detection model, and optimizing the parameters in the SVM through employing PSOM; and finally building a hot spot fault detection model for the photovoltaic cell panel. The method achieves the hot spot fault detection of the photovoltaic cell panel, gives a hot spot damage level, provides precise hot spot fault information, and prompts the safe and effective operation of the photovoltaic power generation system.

The invention discloses a method, a device and a system for controlling photovoltaic grid connection on the basis of a virtual synchronous machine. A photovoltaic grid connection system on the basis of the virtual synchronous machine comprises a photovoltaic cell panel, a DC / DC converter and a DC / AC inverter. The photovoltaic cell panel is connected with direct-current bus, one end of the DC / DC converter is connected with the direct-current bus, the other end of the DC / DC converter is connected with an energy storage cell, the direct-current bus is connected with a direct-current side of the DC / AC inverter, and an alternating-current side of the DC / AC inverter is connected into a transformer. The method, the device and the system have the advantage that the problem that an existing photovoltaic grid connection system is incapable of simultaneously controlling photovoltaic array terminal voltages and implementing functions of an existing virtual synchronous machine can be solved by the aid of the method.

The invention relates to a high-efficiency low-loss hardware circuit of a photovoltaic cell panel output power optimizer. The hardware circuit comprises a circuit for maximizing the output power of a single photovoltaic cell panel set string; a circuit for disconnecting the output of cell panels in the string when the current loss of the photovoltaic cell panel set string is detected; circuits of bypass shading cell panel substrings and an output current sampling circuit. Because of low-pressure-drop power MOSFETs, the whole circuit has the advantages that high efficiency and low loss are achieved in control over the output power of the photovoltaic cell panels; because of output disconnection between the bypasses of shading cell panels and a cell panel which breaks down, it can be guaranteed that the output power of the whole cell panel array is maximum; moreover, when a system breaks down, output is rapidly closed to isolate the fault, safety and reliability are improved.

The invention discloses an all-weather solar photovoltaic cell panel tracking and angle adjustment device comprises a fixed base, a horizontal adjusting device, a verticality adjusting device, a solar photovoltaic cell assembly and a controller. The horizontal adjusting device comprises a motor, a worm and gear reducer, a driving gear and a driven gear; the verticality adjusting device comprises a bottom supporting seat, a triangular dip angle adjusting mechanism, an electromagnetic locking switch and a slide drive mechanism; the solar photovoltaic cell assembly is provided with a photoelectric sensor. By adopting the all-weather solar photovoltaic cell panel tracking and angle adjustment device, the program control of the rotation and angle adjustment of the solar cell panel in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction can be realized; moreover, the motion in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction can be self locked, the sun motion can be automatically tracked all weather, the direction and the dip angle of the solar cell panel can be self-adaptively adjusted, and the utilization rate of the solar energy can be increased. The all-weather photovoltaic cell panel tracking and angle adjustment device can be applied to a fixed place or a movable device and has advantages of simplicity and compactness in structure, stability and reliability in work, convenience in operation and maintenance, high safety and the like.

A method for fabricating a photovoltaic (PV) cell panel wherein all PV cells are formed simultaneously on a two-dimensional array of monocrystalline silicon mother wafers affixed to a susceptor is disclosed. Porous silicon separation layers are anodized in the surfaces of the mother wafers. The porous film is then smoothed to form a suitable surface for epitaxial film growth. An epitaxial reactor is used to grow n- and p-type films forming the PV cell structures. A glass / ceramic handling layer is then formed on the PV cell structures. The PV cell structures with handling layers are then exfoliated from the mother wafer. The array of mother wafers may be reused multiple times, thereby reducing materials costs for the completed solar panels. The glass / ceramic handling layers provide structural integrity to the thin epitaxial solar cells during the separation process and subsequent handling.