A flexible PV cell which is also known as thin film solar cell that is made by depositing very thin layers of photovoltaics material on any kind of substrate, such as, paper, tissue, plastic, glass or metal. It is one of the most revolutionary and epoch making technologies in the sector of solar energy.
The significance of the word “flexible” is that, these kind of solar cells are not like those traditional big, bulky solar panels which is very common nowadays, these are literally flexible, very thin, lightweight, have very little installation cost and can be installed anywhere without going much trouble.
Thickness of a typical cell varies from a few nanometers to few micrometers, whereas its’s predecessor crystalline-silicon solar cell (c-Si) has a wafer size up to 200 micrometers.
In this report, we define flexible PV cells as PV modues fabricated on flexible substrate materials (most commonly used substrates are polyimide, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), and metal foils such as stainless steel (SS) and titanium (Ti)), including flexible a-Si thin film cells, flexible CIGS cells, flexible CdTe cells, OPV cells, flexible DSSC and flexible perovskite PV.
Silicon (Si) solar cells dominate the PV market (92%) followed by cadmium telluride (CdTe, 5%), copper indium gallium selenide (CuInGaSe2or CIGS, 2%) and amorphous silicon (a-Si:H, ~1%). Si wafer with thickness around 180 μm is the traditional materialbeing used for module manufacturing and it has attained significant level of maturity at the industrial level. Its production cost is amajor concern for energy applications. About 50% of the cost of Si solar cells production is due to Si substrate, and device processingand module processing accounts for 20% and 30% respectively.
An alternate to Si solar cells is the thin film solar cells fabricated on glass substrates. The main demerits of using glass substratesare fragile nature of modules, cost of glass wafer having thickness of 300–400 μm, and low specific power (kW/kg) etc. Specific poweris an important factor when solar cells are used in space applications. A high specific power exceeding 2 kW/kg can be achieved by flexible solar cells on polymer films which is useful for terrestrial as well as space applications. Production cost can be lowered byusing flexible substrates and roll-to-roll production (R2R) technique. Apart from light weight, flexibility and less cost of installation,flexible cell processing involves low thermal budget with low material consumption. Other than solar cell applications, smallerspecialized applications are beginning to become more viable independent markets, including applications for mobile power and building or product integration, which can benefit greatly from flexible thin film options. Flexible cells on buildings (known asbuilding integrated photovoltaics or BIPV) can minimize the cost of support, shipments etc., and installations can be handled easily. However, flexible solar cell technology is less mature when compared to the cells fabricated on rigid substrate counterpart.
Due to four main requirements - high efficiency, low-cost production, high throughput and high specific power, a major researchand development focus has been shifted towards flexible solar cells. It can offer a unique way to reach terawatt scale installation byusing high throughput R2R fabrication technique. Most commonly used substrates are polyimide, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), and metal foils such as stainless steel (SS) and titanium (Ti).
The performance of flexible solar cells is comparable to rigid substrates. Flexible substrates are more advantageous than standardsoda-lime glass (SLG) substrates. As mentioned below, there are several merits of using flexible substrates:
- Flexible modules are best suited for curved surfaces and used in BIPV. Since modules are produced from thin film materials it issuitable for mass production.
- An important benefit is that it has potential to reduce the production cost. R2R deposition is beneficial in terms of production costthan that of rigid substrates. Glass cover is an added expense when rigid substrates are used.
- Materials required to produce CIGS, CdTe and a-Si:H flexible modules are much cheaper than conventional Si wafer, glass cover,frames used in Si modules.
- For roof top application, flexible modules are ideal due to light weight. Using lightweight support, it can be installed over the rooftop where glass covered conventional heavy and bulky Si modules are not suitable when roof test fails due to an added weight andstructural issues. Flexible modules can also be installed over the roof of the vehicle, uneven surfaces of building.
- Installation/labor cost is much lower for flexible modules due to less installation time since racking assembly, glass cover etc. arenot required.
- Low power output flexible modules for example a-Si:H require large number of modules to get desired output which can beinstalled easily above the roof top.
- Glass covered rigid modules are fragile. Flexible modules are not fragile it can be rolled up, transported and handled easily.
Photovoltaic (PV) technologies are basically divided into two big categories: wafer-based PV (also called 1st generation PV) and thin-film cell PV. The emerging thin-film PVs are also called 3rd generation PVs, which refer to PVs using technologies that have the potential to overcome Shockley-Queisser limit or are based on novel semiconductors. The 3rd generation PVs include DSSC, organic photovoltaic (OPV), quantum dot (QD) PV and perovskite PV. The cell efficiencies of perovskite are approaching that of commercialized 2nd generation technologies such as CdTe and CIGS. Other emerging PV technologies are still struggling with lab cell efficiencies lower than 15%.
According to the new market research report “Global Flexible PV Cell Market Report 2023-2029”, published by QYResearch, the global Flexible PV Cell market size is projected to reach USD 1.56 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 9.7% during the forecast period.
- Global Flexible PV Cell MarketSize(US$ Million), 2018-2029
Based on or includes research from QYResearch: Global Flexible PV Cell Market Report 2023-2029.
- Global Flexible PV Cell Top9Players Ranking and Market Share（Based on data of 2021, Continually updated）
Based on or includes research from QYResearch: 2021 data information of Global Flexible PV Cell Market Report 2023-2029.
The global key manufacturers of Flexible PV Cell include Sun Harmonics, HyET Solar, F-WAVE Company, Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc., PowerFilm, Inc., etc. In 2021, the global top four players had a share approximately 1.0% in terms of revenue.
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