Publications

Flexible implementation of rigid solar cell technologies

Clark, Ryan A.; Rowen, Adam M.; Coleman, Jonathan J.; Gillen, J.R.

As a source of clean, remote energy, photovoltaic (PV) systems are an important area of research. The majority of solar cells are rigid materials with negligible flexibility. Flexible PV systems possess many advantages, such as being transportable and incorporable on diverse structures. Amorphous silicon and organic PV systems are flexible; however, they lack the efficiency and lifetime of rigid cells. There is also a need for PV systems that are light weight, especially in space and flight applications. We propose a solution to this problem by arranging rigid cells onto a flexible substrate creating efficient, light weight, and flexible devices. To date, we have created a working prototype of our design using the 1.1cm x 1cm Emcore cells. We have achieved a better power to weight ratio than commercially available PowerFilm{reg_sign}, which uses thin film silicon yielding .034W/gram. We have also tested our concept with other types of cells and verified that our methods are able to be adapted to any rigid solar cell technology. This allows us to use the highest efficiency devices despite their physical characteristics. Depending on the cell size we use, we can rival the curvature of most available flexible PV devices. We have shown how the benefits of rigid solar cells can be integrated into flexible applications, allowing performance that surpasses alternative technologies.