Flexible Solar Panels: Connecting Value Addition and Ease of Use to Renewable Energy Sector

Flexible solar panels have proven to be an effective albeit novel way of achieving energy self sufficiency for thousands of homeowners with varying home improvement projects. The fact that they are portable and more resistant to damage that attends their crystalline cousins make them ideal choices for out of the way applications. This guide examines their properties and gives their history and applications a far reaching examination.

Instead of being founded on the crystalline silicon cells that make the conventional modules so hard and rigid in form and applications, these are manufactured from amorphous silicon cells. Silicon that is amorphous means the panels are not only much thinner and flexible but also far less bulkier and inconvenient.

While the promise offered from amorphous silicon is not new, for many years, practical barriers in manufacturing made it impossible for inventors to develop cells with adequate efficiency from the material. However, the most resilient kept trying and with more federal dollars poured into research projects it was all a matter of when and not if this novel technology would turn to be a practical reality.

At the heart of the challenge that scientists and inventors had to confront was the issue of efficiency in electricity generation of these cells. For a module to be considered as a competent application, it needs to convert between 15-20% of the sun's insolation energy to usable solar power. Even the most exacting of manufacturing precision left amorphous cells stuck at efficiency levels of 10% and lower. This state of affairs could not stay for long. By 2011, the levels had risen up to 17% and there is every indication that this will soon be surpassed.

Homeowners and technology enthusiasts have driven the demand for these modules mainly because of the level of portability that they carry. The efficiencies mentioned above show every sign of matching the capacity of traditional panels and even exceeding them. This is a piece of good news that is no longer the stuff of fantasy but actual living proof.

There is as well the fact that flexible modules are decidedly far superior to conventional modules in terms of the reflective index that they posses. The more reflective a solar panel is, the poor it is at absorbing light. Though manufacturers have done their best to overcome the inherent characteristics of traditional panels that make them such high reflectors, the very nature of crystalline cells means that it is an impossibility to totally eliminate the effect.

Other than the obvious use in portable devices that require frequent powering, flexible solar panels are attractive in a range of other uses. They have proven popular for outdoor campers who need power in out of the way places. Scientists carrying out research in remote locations also find the solutions handy.

For a long time, the applications possible to install solar panels were limited by the brittle and bulky nature of crystalline models. This was finally overcome by the invention and enhancement of portable and modules made from amorphous silicon cells. With rising efficiency levels, there is every reason to believe that flexible solar panels will prove to be the energy solution that finally weans the world of her addiction for fossil sourced fuels.


Solar Systems USA has had a lot of years of cordial cooperation with the best solar manufacturers around the globe. We only stock the highest quality solar panels at the most affordable prices you can get on the web.