AND VEHICLE COMPRISING SUCH PANEL

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a sandwich panel, particularly to a vehicle cladding sandwich panel, and to a thermally insulated cargo box comprising such panel as well as a vehicle comprising such panel.

TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

In the following, the term “photovoltaic” may be abbreviated by “PV”. PV cells may also be referred to as solar cells.

Furthermore, while the term “vehicle cladding sandwich panel” may refer to a panel which may be included in and/or attached to a body of any kind of vehicles such as cars, trucks, trailers, busses, mobile homes, trains, ships, airplanes, etc., embodiments are described herein with reference to panels forming a cargo box of a truck or a trailer, for simplicity of description.

Conventionally, thermally sensitive goods such as certain food may be stored and/or transported in thermally insulated cargo boxes. Such cargo boxes may be carried on or integrated into vehicles such as refrigerated trucks or trailers, sometimes also referred to as reefers. Therein, the cargo box comprises multiple insulation panels enclosing a cargo volume. Each insulation panel typically comprises a thermally insulating sheet comprising e.g. a foam. An interior volume of the cargo box is generally cooled or air-conditioned using a cooling unit. Accordingly, the cargo box may act as a large refrigerator. In a conventional cargo box, the foam of an insulation panel is typically interposed between a front side stabilisation layer and a rear side stabilisation layer. The foam may be optimised with regards to its thermally insulation characteristics and may provide the panel with a low heat transmission coefficient. However, the foam is typically soft, instable and/or not self-supporting. The stabilisation layers are typically substantially more mechanically loadable than the interposed foam. Accordingly, a sandwich panel formed by the foam interposed between the stabilisation layers at both opposite surfaces of the foam generally has a sufficient mechanical stability such as to serve as a side wall, roof and/or bottom of the cargo box.

The applicant of the presents application as disclosed in an earlier patent application EP 22 181 060 a sandwich panel which may, inter-alia, be used for a thermally insulated cargo box and a vehicle provided therewith, wherein the sandwich panel is configured for providing additional functionalities. Particularly, the described sandwich panel includes integrated photo voltaics for electricity generation and is therefore referred to as photovoltaic sandwich panel or PV-integrated sandwich panel. Details of embodiments described in the earlier patent application may be applied or adapted to the invention described herein. Accordingly, the content of the earlier patent application shall be incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

However, it has been observed that photovoltaic sandwich panels may suffer from insufficient sustainability, particularly at an end of their service-life.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION AND OF EMBODIMENTS

There may be a need for a photovoltaic sandwich panel which may, inter-alia, be used for a thermally insulated cargo box and a vehicle provided therewith, wherein the sandwich panel is specifically configured for improved sustainability. Particularly, there may be a need for a sandwich panel, at least a substantial part of which may be easily recycled at an end of its service-life. Furthermore, there may be a need for a thermally insulated cargo box comprising such photovoltaic sandwich panel and for a vehicle comprising such cargo box.

Such needs may be met with the subject matter of the independent claims. Advantageous embodiments and characteristics are defined in the dependent claims and are described in the present specification and visualised in the accompanying figures.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a photovoltaic sandwich panel, particularly a photovoltaic vehicle cladding sandwich panel, is described. The PV sandwich panel comprises at least the following components: a sheet-like photovoltaic label, a support sheet and a rear side stabilisation layer. The photovoltaic label at least comprises a front side polymeric lamination foil, a rear side polymeric lamination foil and a solar cell arrangement interposed between the front and rear side lamination foils. The support sheet has a higher thickness and a lower density than the rear side stabilisation layer. The rear side stabilisation layer is fixed to a rear side of the support sheet. The photovoltaic label is fixed with its rear side to a front side of the support sheet. Specifically, at least the support sheet and the rear side stabilisation layer consist of a same polymer material.

According to a second aspect of the invention, a thermally insulated cargo box is described. The cargo box comprises a cargo volume enclosed by multiple insulation panels including a roof panel, a bottom panel and several side panels. Therein, at least one of the insulation panels is made with a photovoltaic sandwich panel according to an embodiment of the first aspect of the invention.

According to a third aspect of the invention, a vehicle comprising a thermally insulated cargo box according to an embodiment of the second aspect of the invention is described.

Briefly summarised and without limiting the scope of the invention, basic ideas underlying embodiments of the invention and associated possible advantages may be roughly described as follows:

As indicated further above, it has been observed that photovoltaic sandwich panels may suffer from insufficient sustainability. Particularly, it has been observed that conventional photovoltaic sandwich panels generally comprise various types of polymers in various layers, foils and/or sheets forming the sandwich panel. For example, conventional PV sandwich panels particularly comprise a support sheet formed by a lightweight core including a first polymer material and further comprise rear and front side stabilisation layers formed by another second polymer material. Furthermore, the sandwich panel may comprise additional layers or materials, such as gluing materials, impregnating materials, etc., which consist of further polymer materials. Therein, the first and second and, optionally, further polymer materials are conventionally selected to be different from each other in order to, for example, reduce costs of the sandwich panel, reduce a weight of the sandwich panel and/or adopt functionalities of the different layers, sheets and materials to specific requirements such as mechanical stability, chemical resistance, etc. However, it has been found that using such multiple different polymer materials in one and the same sandwich panel may result in significant problems upon attempting to disassemble and recycle parts and/or materials comprised in such sandwich panel upon the sandwich panel having reached its end of service life.

It is therefore suggested that at least the support sheet and the rear side stabilisation layer of a PV sandwich panel consist of a same polymer material. Preferably, even more components of the PV sandwich panel consist of the same polymer material. At the end of the service life, the PV sandwich panel may therefore be disassembled and all components consisting of the same polymer material may be easily separated and recycled.

In the following, possible features of embodiments of the invention and associated possible advantages will be described in more detail.

It has been suggested earlier by the applicant (e.g. in EP 22 181 060) to use a specific sheet-like photovoltaic label for covering an outside surface of a sandwich panel. Therein, the PV label may replace a conventional front side stabilisation layer or may be added to such front side stabilisation layer. The PV label does not comprise a glass cover sheet. Instead, its solar cell arrangement is encapsulated between front and rear side polymeric lamination foils. As a preferable option, the PV label further comprises an additional front side stabilisation foil which is provided for mechanically stabilising the PV label. As a further option, the PV label may further comprise a rear side stabilisation foil. The front and rear side stabilisation foils may enclose the front and rear side lamination foils such as to form an outermost layer of the PV label, respectively. Generally, the front and/or rear side stabilization foils may have a higher thickness, a higher rigidity, a higher scratch resistance and/or a higher impact resistance than the lamination foils. Furthermore, while the stack including the front and rear side polymeric lamination foils and the solar cell arrangement may or may not be self-supportive, the stack additionally including the at least one stabilization foil typically is generally self-supportive. Such front and/or rear side stabilisation foils may be made of a polymer material. Optionally, such stabilisation foil may be fibre-reinforced.

Overall, the PV label typically has a significantly smaller thickness and lower weight as compared to conventional PV panels. Furthermore, the solar cell arrangement in the PV label may be well protected by the encapsulation formed by the lamination foils and, as a preferred optional addition, by the front side stabilisation foil, on the one side, and may be mechanically supported and for example protected against excessive bending by the sandwich structure which is formed by the PV label together with the support sheet and the rear side stabilisation layer.

Due to the small thickness of the PV label, even though there may be application-specific dimension restrictions with regards to an overall thickness of the entire PV sandwich panel, the support sheet may have a significant thickness. For example, such thickness may amount to more than 80%, preferably more than 90% and more preferably more than 95% of the entire thickness of the PV sandwich panel. For example, the support sheet may have a thickness of between 0.5 cm and 25 cm, preferably between 0.5 cm and 12 cm, between 0.5 cm and 10 cm or between 1 cm and 8 cm, more preferably between 2 cm and 6 cm. Furthermore, the support sheet may be made with a material having a relatively low density. For example, such density may be between 15 kg/m ³ and 750 kg/m ³ , preferably between 50 kg/m ³ and 500 kg/m ³ .

Due to, inter-alia, such significant thickness and/or low density of the support sheet, the support sheet may be configured for having a heat transmission coefficient of less than 1 W/m ² , less than 0.5 W/m ² K, preferably less than 0,4 W/m ² K or even less than 0.3 W/m ² K. Thus, the entire sandwich panel may have a substantial thermal insulation capacity. Accordingly, the sandwich panel having the PV label integrated therein may perfectly serve as thermally insulating panel in an insulated cargo box for example of a vehicle.

In order to improve a sustainability of the PV sandwich panel and, particularly, in order to enable or simplify recycling of at least portions of such PV sandwich panel, it is suggested to form as many components as possible of such PV sandwich panel of a same polymer material.

According to an embodiment, the PV sandwich panel further comprises a front side stabilisation layer, wherein the front side stabilisation layer is fixed to a front side of the support sheet and is interposed between the support sheet and the rear side polymeric lamination foil of the photovoltaic label. Therein, at least the support sheet, the rear side stabilisation layer and the front side stabilisation layer consist of the same polymer material.

In other words, additionally to the rear side stabilisation layer fixed to the rear side of the support sheet, characteristics of the sandwich panel such as its rigidity or mechanical load bearing capacity may be further improved by including an additional stabilisation layer at the front side of the support sheet. Such front side stabilisation layer is therefore arranged between and fixed to both, the support sheet and the PV label. It shall be noted that the layer referred to herein as the “front side stabilisation layer” may be attached to the support sheet before then joining it to the PV label during a manufacturing procedure. However, as a further option, such layer may initially be attached to the rear side polymeric lamination foil of the photovoltaic label before fixing it to the support sheet, wherein, in such alternative case, the layer may also be interpreted as rear side stabilisation foil of the photovoltaic label. In both cases, in the finally composed PV sandwich panel, the mentioned layer may be named front side stabilisation layer and is interposed between the support sheet and the rear side polymeric lamination foil of the photovoltaic label and is fixedly connected to both components.

Therein, the front side stabilisation layer should preferably consist of the same polymer material as the rear side stabilisation layer and the support sheet.

According to an embodiment, the photovoltaic label further comprises a rear side stabilisation foil, wherein the rear side stabilisation foil is interposed between the front side stabilisation layer and the rear side polymeric lamination foil. Therein at least the support sheet, the rear side stabilisation layer, the front side stabilisation layer and the rear side stabilisation foil consist of the same polymer material.

Expressed differently, the entire stack forming the PV sandwich panel may include a rear side stabilisation foil which may form part of the PV label. Such rear side stabilisation foil may be present at the PV label already before the PV label being joined to the support sheet and its stabilisation layers during a manufacturing procedure. For example, the rear side stabilisation foil may improve mechanical characteristics of the PV label and/or may protect the solar cell arrangement in the PV label. Accordingly, in the final PV sandwich panel, such rear side stabilisation foil is arranged between and fixed to the front side stabilisation layer and the remainder of the PV label.

In such case, all of the adjacent components, i.e. the entire layer stack formed by the rear side stabilisation foil, front side stabilisation layer, support sheet and rear side stabilisation layer should preferably consist of the same polymer material in order to simplify separation and recycling thereof.

According to an embodiment, the polymer material commonly forming all of the above- mentioned components of the PV sandwich panel is substantially free from fluorines. Generally, fluorine-free polymer materials may be recycled easier than fluorine-containing polymer materials.

According to an embodiment, the polymer material is a thermoplastic polymer, preferably one of PET (polyethylene terephthalate), PP (polypropylene), PE (polyethylene) and PS (polystyrene). These polymer materials have been found to be highly recyclable, particularly in case they are present in a pure form, i.e. not being mixed with other polymer materials.

According to an embodiment, an interface at at least one of the rear side and the front side of the support sheet is free from any glue comprising materials other than the polymer material forming the support sheet.

In other words, the support sheet and the rear side stabilisation layer as well as, additionally and optionally, the front side stabilisation layer and, as a further option, the rear side stabilisation foil, should preferably be fixed to each other without any glue comprising a different polymer material being present at their respective interfaces. Instead, these components should be attached to each other without any material other than the polymer material of the components itself being used to fix the components to each other.

For example, in terms of the components consisting of a thermoplastic polymer material, one or each of the components abutting to each other at their interface may be locally heated to a temperature where the thermoplastic polymer material becomes viscous or fluid such as to establish an integral connection upon re-solidifying the material. Such application of heat and, optionally, application of pressure may be part of a lamination process.

Avoiding the use of any other polymer material acting as a glue may significantly simplify recycling of the material comprised in the mentioned components upon for example using chemical recycling approaches.

According to an embodiment, the support sheet has a 3 -dimensional structure in which voids are surrounded by the polymer material.

Expressed differently, additional to its extension in lateral directions, the support sheet may have a substantial thickness such as to form a three-dimensional body. However, in order to keep the density low and/or improve thermal insulation capacity, the support layer should comprise voids in such three-dimensional structure, such voids being filled with gas such as air and being surrounded by the polymer material. The combined volume of the voids is generally substantially higher than the combined volume of the polymer material. Accordingly, the support sheet having such 3 -dimensional structure has a significantly lower density than a solid sheet consisting of the polymer material.

Particularly, according to an embodiment, the support sheet may comprise an extruded foam, an injection molded foam, a particle foam, a block foam and/or a honeycomb or corrugated core. The foam is generally porous and may have a structure with open pores or closed pores.

Furthermore, the support sheet may be a combination of the options mentioned before. For example, two or more different types of foams may be combined. As another example, a honeycomb or corrugated core, which itself typically has insufficient thermal insulation properties, may be combined and/or filled with a foam.

Furthermore, according to an embodiment, the rear side stabilisation layer has a substantially 2- dimensional structure of continuous polymer material.

In other words, the rear side stabilisation layer is generally substantially thinner than the support sheet and therefore may be regarded as having a quasi-two-dimensional structure. Furthermore, such layer is preferably not porous but consists of a continuous structure of polymer material. Accordingly, the rear side stabilisation later may tightly cover the support sheet and may therefore protect the support sheet for example from humidity, water or other fluid chemicals. Furthermore, the rear side stabilisation layer may have stronger tensile characteristics than the support sheet. As a result of its mechanical characteristics, the rear side stabilisation layer may form a composite structure together with the support sheet, such composite structure having superior mechanical characteristics such as reduced weight and increased load bearing capacity.

Same characteristics may apply for the front side stabilisation layer and/or the rear side stabilisation foil of the PV label. Accordingly, these components may form a highly rigid and loadable sandwich structure together with the support sheet and the rear side stabilisation layer.

According to an embodiment, the photovoltaic label and/or the stabilisation layer is fixed to the support sheet along its entire surface.

In other words, the PV label and/or the rear side stabilisation layer and/or the front side stabilisation layer may cover one of the main surfaces of the support sheet in its entirety and may be attached to the support sheet not only locally but along the entire interface between both components. Thereby, a resistant and highly loadable interconnection between both components may be established.

According to an embodiment, the photovoltaic label has a thickness of between 0.1 cm and 1 cm. Furthermore, the solar cell arrangement may comprise multiple wafer-based semiconductor solar cells.

It shall be noted that possible features and advantages of embodiments of the invention are described herein partly with respect to a PV sandwich panel, partly with respect to specific applications thereof such that in a thermally insulated cargo box of e.g. a reefer. One skilled in the art will recognise that the features may be suitably transferred from one embodiment to another and features may be modified, adapted, combined and/or replaced, etc. in order to come to further embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following, advantageous embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the enclosed drawings. However, neither the drawings nor the description shall be interpreted as limiting the invention.

Fig. 1 shows a cross-sectional view of a photovoltaic sandwich panel in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 shows a vehicle comprising a thermally insulated cargo box in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

The figures are only schematic and not to scale. Same reference signs refer to same or similar features.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Vehicle-integrated Photovoltaics (ViPV) aims at integrating photovoltaic panels onto or into a body of vehicles. In most cases, the PV panels are partially or thoroughly enveloped by a polymeric material or laminated on a substrate made from polymers. The polymeric materials may act as a part of the vehicle’s body while providing stability and protection to the PV panel. In parallel, the PV panels for ViPV are also usually made by enveloping solar cells in between at least two polymeric protective layers, namely front sheet and back sheet. The reason for using polymeric front sheet and back sheet instead of traditionally used glass is their light weight as well as their flexibility.

The end-of-life handling for such PV-integrated parts is however not clear and the multitude of the materials conventionally used in such structures will make their mechanical recycling difficult and expensive. Most of mechanical recyclers consider such combination of materials as difficult or not recyclable. These materials then end up in thermal recycling, which is the farthest away from a sustainable and circular system, or even landfill. Another possibility could be chemical recycling. This latter is however complex, cost intensive and at very low technology readiness level. Furthermore, one should consider that the recycling technologies are primarily being developed for polymers that are used in big volumes such as polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polyethylene-terephthalate (PET), etc. Meanwhile, there are still many fluorine-containing polymers used in PV industry, for which no recycling technology is developed yet on an industrial scale.

Considering the points above, PV panels used in ViPV will most likely end up in thermal recycling or landfill. This can become a counter argument for their sustainable usage as they will use a lot of raw resources, including mainly material form fossil origin, and create considerable carbon footprint.

In order to avoid the problems mentioned in the previous section, the PV integrated product should be designed in a way to facilitate the end-of-life recycling.

As such, it is suggested to use the mono-material concept presented herein, in which a single polymeric material is used to fabricate almost the entirety of the PV-integrated part.

A focus of the approach presented in the present application is a sandwich panel with integrated PV panels used as the building block of cargo-boxes, trailers and similar. A potential solution, especially for PV-integrated cargo-boxes, is to design the whole sandwich panel with only one polymer, preferably a thermoplastic polymer, more preferably a thermoplastic with established recycling industry such as PET, PP, PE, Polystyrene (PS) and similar. Fig. 1 shows a cross-sectional view of a PV sandwich panel 1 which may be used in a vehicle 27 such as a reefer as shown in Fig. 2. Particularly, the PV sandwich panel 1 may serve as a vehicle cladding insulation panel 29 in a cargo box 25 having both an electricity generation functionality and a thermally insulating functionality.

The PV sandwich panel 1 comprises a sheet-like PV label 3 at its front side 21, a sheet-like rear side stabilisation layer 7 at its rear side 23 and a support sheet 5 interposed between the PV label 3 and the rear side stabilisation layer 7. As visualised in more detail in the enlarged portion in Fig. 1, the entire stack forming the PV sandwich panel 1 comprises the rear side stabilisation layer 7 directly abutting to the rear side surface of the support sheet 5 and furthermore the PV label 3 directly abutting to the front side surface of the support sheet 5. Therein, the PV label 3 comprises a front side stabilisation foil 9, a front side polymeric lamination foil 11, a rear side polymeric lamination foil 13, a rear side stabilisation foil 15 and a solar cell arrangement 17 including multiple solar cells 19 encapsulated between the front and rear side polymeric lamination foils 11, 13.

It is to be mentioned that, in the first embodiment presented in Fig. 1, the PV label 3 has been prefabricated and has then been attached to the front side surface of the support sheet 5 by e.g. laminating both components together. In the final sandwich structure prepared thereby, the rear side stabilisation foil 15 of the prefabricated PV label 3 is interposed between the support sheet 5 and the rear side polymeric lamination foil 13 of the photovoltaic label 3.

In an alternative second embodiment (not shown), the PV label 3 could be prefabricated without having a rear side stabilisation foil 15 and could then be laminated to the front side of the support sheet 5.

In a further alternative third embodiment, the PV label 3 could again be prefabricated without having the rear side stabilisation foil 15, but the support sheet 5 could be prefabricated with the rear side stabilisation layer 7 being attached to the rear side of the support layer 5 and, furthermore, with a front side stabilisation layer 8 being attached to the front side of the support sheet 5. In such case, when the sandwich including the rear side stabilisation layer 7, the support sheet 5 and the front side stabilisation layer 8 is laminated to a PV label 3 having no rear side stabilisation foil 15, the front side stabilisation layer 8 is interposed between the support sheet 5 and the rear side polymeric lamination foil 13. Accordingly, in such third embodiment, the front side stabilisation layer 8 is arranged exactly in the same manner as the rear side stabilisation foil 15 in the first embodiment and, in the final PV sandwich panel 1, both layers/foils 8, 15 may serve a same function and may not be distinguished from each other (which is indicated in Fig. 1 by the interposed rear side stabilisation foil 15 being also indicated in dotted lines with reference number 8).

Finally, in a fourth embodiment (not shown), the PV label 3 could be prefabricated having the rear side stabilisation foil 15 while also the support sheet 5 is prefabricated having both, the front side stabilisation layer 8 as well as the rear side stabilisation layer 7 attached to its opposing surfaces. Upon laminating both components together, the final PV sandwich panel 1 comprises both, the front side stabilisation layer 8 as well as the rear side stabilisation foil 15.

In all embodiments described above, at least the support sheet 5 and the rear side stabilisation layer 7, but preferably also the front side stabilisation layer 8, rear side stabilisation foil 15 and/or additional portions of the PV label 3 shall be made with a same polymeric material. Accordingly, at an end of service life of the PV sandwich panel 1 , these portions may be easily separated from other portions of the PV sandwich panel 1 and may be recycled to a significant degree or even in their entirety.

As mentioned above, the PV sandwich panel 1 may be integrated into reefers or refrigerated semi-trailers, whereby the roof and/or sides will be equipped with solar modules by means of a vehicle applied photovoltaic process that is specifically suited for the use in cargo-box vehicles.

Finally, some possible details of embodiments of the PV sandwich panel 1 presented herein shall be described in the following paragraphs.

For example, the PV sandwich panel 1 may be made of a PET core forming the support sheet 5 and PET face-sheets forming both, the rear side stabilisation layer 7 and the front side stabilisation layer 8, respectively. The PET core may be an extruded foam, injection molded foam, particle foam, block foam, honeycomb or any other structure that can be used as core for a sandwich panel. The PET core may have a thickness of 5 - 250 mm and a density of 15 - 750 kg/m ³ . The PET face-sheet may be a pure PET sheet or, alternatively, a PET sheet reinforced with glass fiber or carbon fiber or natural fiber or PET fiber or similar. The PET sheet could be produced by extrusion, injection molding, calendering, or other conventional method for producing sheets. PET face-sheets may have a thickness of 0,005 mm to 10 mm. For example, the PV sandwich panel 1 may have at least one PET back-sheet serving as a rear side stabilisation foil 15. The PET back-sheet may be a pure PET sheet, PET sheet reinforced with glass fiber or carbon fiber or natural fiber or PET fiber or similar. Furthermore, the property of the PET back-sheet may be physically, chemically and/or mechanically modified for achieving superior performance such as UV-resistance, hydrolysis-resistance, barrier property, high- temperature-resistance, aging resistance, etc. The PET back-sheet could have one or more extra layers such as a co-extruded layer or coating or similar for providing extra protection, additional properties, improved adhesion, or similar. The PET back-sheet may be produced by extrusion, injection molding, calendering, or other conventional method for producing sheets. The PET back-sheet may have a thickness of 0,005 mm to 10 mm.

For example, a PV sandwich panel 1 may have at least one transparent or semi-transparent polymer front-sheet serving as a front side stabilisation foil 9, preferably but not necessarily a PET front-sheet. Such PET front-sheet could be reinforced with fibers such as glass fiber, PET fiber, natural fiber, mineral or organic fillers. Furthermore, the property of the PET front-sheet may be physically, chemically or mechanically modified for achieving superior performance such as UV-resistance, hydrolysis-resistance, barrier property, high-temperature-resistance, aging resistant, self-cleaning, anti-reflection, etc. The PET front-sheet may have one or more extra layers such a co-extruded layer or coating or similar for providing extra protection, additional properties, improved adhesion or similar. Moreover, the PET front-sheet may be structured on the surface with different patterns in nano- or micro-scale for better performance, such as selfcleaning or anti-reflection or similar. The PET front-sheet may be produced by extrusion, injection molding, calendering, or other conventional method for producing sheets. The PET back-sheets may have a thickness of 0,005 mm to 5 mm.

For example, a PV sandwich panel 1 may have at least one encapsulant for the back-sheet, such encapsulant serving as a rear side polymeric lamination foil 13, and one encapsulant for the frontsheet, such encapsulant serving as a front side polymeric lamination foil 11. The encapsulants of the front-sheet and the back-sheet may be made from the same material or different materials. The encapsulants may be any of thermosetting or thermoplastic materials that may act as encapsulant including but not limited to elastomers such as Ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) polyolefin elastomers (POE), thermoplastic polyolefins (TPO), silicone, ionomers, thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU), thermoplastic polyester elastomers, etc. The encapsulant may have a thickness of 0,005 mm to 5 mm. For example, a PV sandwich label 1 may have solar cell arrangement 17 with multiple photovoltaic cells 19 made of, but not limited, to wafer-based technology, thin film technology and organic cell technology.

A mono-material PV-integrated sandwich panel, as defined above and after removing the PV panels, may be mechanically recycled by the state-of-the-art technologies used by many recyclers. The recycled thermoplastic material may afterward be used again for fabricating new components for a ViPV or other applications. Using a component from a recycled source will contribute considerably to the reduction of CO2 footprint of the final product.

Finally, 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. Also elements described in association with different embodiments may be combined. It should also be noted that reference signs in the claims should not be construed as limiting the scope of the claims.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

1 PV sandwich panel

3 sheet-like photovoltaic label

5 support sheet

7 rear side stabilisation layer

8 front side stabilisation layer

9 front side stabilisation foil

11 front side polymeric lamination foil

13 rear side polymeric lamination foil

15 rear side stabilisation foil

17 solar cell arrangement

19 solar cell

21 front side

23 rear side

25 thermally insulated cargo box

27 vehicle

29 insulation panel