DISQUS

Li · 2 years ago

Any photovoltaic solar cells and modules maker wants to shift their manufactoring or OEM to China?

Looking for this kind of cooperation.

Cheers
Li

Email: lihongrui@gmail.com

Alison Chaiken · 2 years ago

Matt, thin film solar technologies are not necessarily more flexible than traditional single-crystal silicon. PV technologies can be described as "thin film" or "bulk." Bulk PV is made from a crystal which is sliced via a saw from a boule of material. Sunpower, for example, works on bulk poly-Si technology.

Thin-film PV units are made by depositing semiconductors like Si or CuInGaSe2 (CIGS) on a substrate which is not a semiconductor. For example, Powerfilm deposits amorphous Si on plastic, Unisolar deposits amorphous Si on stainless steel, and Nanosolar deposits CIGS on something or other. Whether or not these thin-film solar cells are flexible depends on whether or not the substrates are flexible. Glass is a popular substrate for thin-film PV and it's not too flexible.

Why do we care about thin-film if the PV cells are not necessarily flexible? It's because thin-film cells have the potential to be more efficient (like CIGS), cheaper (poly-Si or amorphous Si) or more lightweight than bulk Si. For most applications, flexibility is not important.

Hope this helps!