Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging – Wind – solar – thermal – or fuel-cell source
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-30
2002-04-30
Wong, Peter S. (Department: 2838)
Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging
Wind, solar, thermal, or fuel-cell source
C320S107000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06380710
ABSTRACT:
RELATED APPLICATION DATA
The present application claims priority to Japanese Application Nos. P11-195241 filed Jul. 9, 1999; P11-216798, filed Jul. 30, 1999; P11-250340 filed Sep. 3, 1999; P11-275919 filed Sep. 29, 1999; and P11-275920 filed Sep. 29, 1999 which applications are incorporated herein by reference to the extent permitted by law.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photovoltaic-charged secondary battery device having a storage battery which is chargeable with electricity produced by a photoelectric transducer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a photoelectric transducer is known and referred to as a solar battery, and converts photo energy such as solar energy into electric energy. Unlike conventional fossil fuels, photoelectric transducers do not produce emissions such as carbon dioxide, when generating electric energy from photo energy. Photoelectric transducers can generate electricity semi-permanently because they produce electric energy from solar energy which is the to be almost inexhaustible. Photoelectric transducers are therefore expected to find wider use and greater scale of use, from the global environmental point of view.
However, photoelectric transducers are in many cases do not suitably used as direct power supply of electric appliances, because they exhibit an ample variation of the output electric energy due to large change in the level of photo energy such as solar light which significantly varies according to time. Furthermore, in order for the photoelectric transducers to produce practically usable level of electric energy, large area must be available on such transducers for receiving light rays, because the photo energy such as solar energy is spatially distributed in a highly diluted manner. For these reasons, photoelectric transducers are used to provide only assisting electric power or to charge a storage battery from which electric energy is discharged for use.
In the meantime, current progress in various working and machining technologies have accelerated a trend towards miniaturization of electrical appliances, and various kinds of handy or portable or hand-held devices are becoming available. Such portable or hand-held devices usually operate with power supplied from a dry cell which is a handy and portable power supply.
Photovoltaic-chargeable secondary batteries, which combines the advantages of photoelectric transducers and the convenience of dry cells have been proposed as in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 63-314780 entitled battery and in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2-73675 entitled cylindrical chargeable solar battery. Such a known photovoltaic-charged secondary battery device consolidates a power-generating photoelectric transducer and a storage battery as a chargeable/dischargeable element into the form of a standard cylindrical cell. Thus, ordinary electric appliances can be activated by electric power derived from photo energy.
Conventional photovoltaic-charged secondary batteries, however, have the following shortcomings. Firstly, it is impossible to use the entire surfaces of the storage battery as the light-receiving surface, because photo energy such as solar energy is usually impinges upon the battery only in one direction. Further, it is impossible to increase the area of the light-receiving surface beyond the total outer surface area of the battery. Consequently, the known photovoltaic-charged secondary battery device requires impractically long charging time or even fails to produce electric energy required for sufficiently charging up the storage battery.
Under these circumstances, the inventors have made an intense study to invent a photovoltaic-charged secondary battery device in which a storage battery is combined with a flexible photoelectric transducer so as to make it possible to use, as a power supply of an ordinary electric appliance, power generated from photo energy such as solar energy. The inventors have filed a patent application on this invention and the application now bears Japanese Patent Application No. 10-351505. Thus, the inventors have succeeded in developing a photovoltaic-charged secondary battery device which has practically satisfactory charging performance and which can suitably be used as power supply of ordinary electric appliances.
However, this photovoltaic-charged secondary battery device still requires improvements in some respects. One major problem is that the photoelectric transducer tends to be damaged and deteriorated in a short time, so that the overall power generating efficiency and, hence, the charging performance are undesirably impaired. This is attributable to the fact that the flexible photoelectric transducer undergoes frequent straightening to develop a large light-receiving area to charge up the battery and, in some cases, frictional contact with other part of the secondary battery device.
Another deficiency to be eliminated is that not a negligible portion of the photoelectric transducer in the unrolled state is shaded to fail to receive light rays, though other portions are sufficiently irradiated with light rays. The shaded portions cannot efficiently generate electric energy, so that the overall power generating efficiency and, hence, the charging performance are impaired.
Still another problem is as follows. The photoelectric transducer has the form of a photoelectric transducer sheet composed of a flexible carrier sheet or substrate and a plurality of photoelectric transducer elements arranged on the sheet. When the photoelectric transducer sheet is unrolled to develop a large light-receiving area, a large external force is applied to the photoelectric transducer sheet. The inventors have found that such a large external force is necessary to overcome resistance which is generated as a result of frictional engagement between the sheet and other parts of the secondary battery device. Repeated application of such a large external force accelerates damaging and deterioration of the photoelectric transducer, resulting in a reduced overall power generating efficiency and, therefore, in inferior charging performance.
A further problem to be solved is as follows. When charging the storage battery, the photoelectric transducer sheet is unrolled to develop a large area for receiving solar light rays. The photovoltaic-charged secondary battery device placed under the sunshine may be heated up to an extraordinary high temperature, posing a risk of blow-off of an internal gas or electrolyte to blow off due to excessive rise of the pressure inside the storage battery. This risk cannot be completely avoided even when users are adequately cautioned, although the probability of occurrence of such n accident is very small. It is therefore necessary to take a measure to protect the photovoltaic-charged secondary battery device against an excessive temperature rise of the storage battery.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a photovoltaic-charged secondary battery device having a photoelectric transducer sheet carrying a photoelectric transducer formed thereon and combined with a storage battery, wherein the photoelectric transducer sheet has flexibility and durability sufficient to ensure high charging performance against repeated use.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a photovoltaic-charged secondary battery device having a flexible photoelectric transducer sheet carrying a photoelectric transducer formed thereon, a storage battery, and a peripheral wall member which protects the photoelectric transducer sheet, thereby offering charging performance which is practically satisfactory and which can be maintained for a long time against repeated use.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a photovoltaic-charged secondary battery having a photoelectric transducer sheet which is uncoiled and extracted from a core so as to be exposed to light rays, the transducer sheet generating electrical energy with which a s
Hinokuma Koichiro
Inoue Ritsuko
Miyazawa Hiroshi
Watanabe Haruo
Watanabe Tomikazu
Luk Lawrence
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal
Wong Peter S.
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